In 1957, with the invitation from engraver and sculptor Lenard Baskin tomake a book about his Crow, Ted Hughes wrote some poems to accompanyBaskin’s engravings. This experience inspired him to produce his own book aboutthe Crow entitled Crow: From the Life and Songs of the Crow (1970, 1972). Inwriting the book, Hughes drew on his own knowledge of mythology and folkloreabout the crow. In the 1960s, Hughes became especially interested in the myths ofNative Americans. In some of their myths, the crow is “trickster.” Hughes read,and was much influenced by, Paul Radin’s book, Trickster, which is about thestudy of particular Winnebago Indian myths, especially the Winnebago Trickstercycle. Hughes created his own Crow with a mythological trickster characterinspired by these trickster myths. From Radin’s book, Hughes also adopted CarlJung’s idea of the shadow, in which Jung identifies the trickster as a collectiveshadow archetype. For Hughes, the Crow is a kind of shadow figure which hasnegative characteristics. The crow has been the symbol of evil, violence anddestruction since early Biblical times. The crow as a carrion eater is synonymouswith death and darkness. He cannot live on without the deaths of others. InHughes’ poetry, the Crow is the object onto which people project their mentalstates such as anger, hatred and other negative feelings or one’s disagreeablecharacteristics which are deeply denied in the self. Hughes projected the repressedcollective unconscious onto the Crow in his poems. In a sense, the Crow is alsoHughes himself̶̶he had felt the “sin” of the deaths of his wife, Sylvia Plathand his lover, Assia Wevill. “The Black Beast” is an example of the existence ofthe shadow figure. In this poem, Crow searches everywhere to discover “the blackbeast,” but in vain. Actually “the black beast” is within himself. It is the symbolof his evil. In another of his poems, “Crow’s Nerve Fails,” the Crow is confinedwithin his own evil and sin. The element of blackness is also important in thisanthology, because the shadow figure suggests black and the color of the Crow isalso black. Another of the trickster’s characteristics is that he is a creator as well asa destroyer. For example, in “Crow Blacker than Ever,” the Biblical account of theCreation is reversed and the Crow does his own Creation which is disastrous. Thisis an apocalyptic parody of the Old Testament. Like the mythological trickster, theCrow takes God’s place. In this way, in his blackly humorous and ironical style,Hughes describes Crow’s relationship with God, man, and nature to explore thehuman mind as well as his own.