Richard Hugo was a prize-winning poet with an international reputation and yet he is a poet who is often identified with the American West. Does Hugo have a western sensibility? Does he write about aspects of the west that are often overlooked by those outside the region? Is there something about his poetry that marks him as an insider? A drifter?

What do you need to know in order to appreciate these poems? Are there words, events or places you need to know more about?

Word choice and diction:

Many of these poems mix levels of diction. Listen to Hugo’s introduction to “What Thou Lovest Well Remains American” and then listen to the poem. What is the effect of the movement between levels of diction in the title and in the poem?

Hugo alters the order of words away from the standard order of speech or prose. For example, in “Degrees of Gray in Philipsburg,” he writes: “the huge mill in collapse/for fifty years that won’t fall finally down.” What effects does he create when he alters standard word order?

The natural world:

Hugo writes about the natural world. Can you characterize the ways in which he observes, represents and uses the natural world? Are there patterns that develop around his depiction of the natural world? Can you suggest a portrait of this poet’s relation to the natural world from the poems included here?

In the river poems (“Skykomish River Running,” “At The Stilli’s Mouth,” “Duwamish,” “West Marginal Way,” “Plunking the Skagit”), what are some similarities? What are some differences? How do the differences in the rivers suggest different responses by the poet?

Listening and reading:

Listening to poetry often changes your interpretation of a poem you have only read before. Select a poem and find the printed poem first. Read the poem and make notes toward an interpretation. Then listen to the same poem, making notes toward an interpretation. Do you hear line breaks? Stanza breaks? What words claim more of your attention? What emotion do you hear in the voice? How is the poem different to you on the page? Do you emphasize different words or lines? How does your interpretation of the poem on the page differ from the poem as heard?

In listening to Hugo read his own poems, we have the poems embodied in a way that often eludes us when we read poems from a book. Pick two or three poems that have introductions and discuss the way the introductions and the reading give listeners a sense of the poet as a person. What do you learn about him? What aspects of his body does he discuss? What emotions do you hear expressed in his voice?

Poetic places:

Many of the poems (“Silver Star,” “Bear Paw,” “Fort Benton”) begin with or have a title that specifies a place. How does the poet represent a particular place? What aspects of that place are featured? What’s missing? How does the poet use particular places? Does the poem move beyond the specifics of a place? If so, where, and how does he broaden the perspective of the poem?

In his introduction to “A Map of Montana in Italy,” Hugo talks about his use of Montana in the poem. Some people have felt that some of his depictions of places, for example, Philipsburg, Montana, are demeaning. What do you think? If you find it demeaning, why? If not, why not? What does your opinion suggest about the way you think Hugo’s poems work? Why does he title the poem as he does?

Hugo introduces “Degrees of Gray in Philipsburg” as “one of the better poems I’ll ever do.” How does this poem represent the culmination of his talents as a poet? Would you make the case for a different poem on these CDs? Why?

Poetic introductions:

In some of the introductions to poems (“Missoula Softball Tournament,” “What Thou Lovest Well Remains American”) Hugo offers the event or circumstances that provided an occasion for writing the poem. Do these events suggest a pattern? What do these introductions reveal about the poet?

Hugo often introduces his poems with a humorous story. How does he use humor in his poems? How do these humorous introductions affect what you hear in the poems that follow?

The dream and letter poems:

In his introduction to the letter and dream poems, Hugo reveals something about the relationship between form and content in each type of poem. Compare or contrast one of the letter poems with one of the dream poems. What can one do that the other can’t? How does the form work on the content?

In his two dream poems (“In Your Young Dream,” “In Your War Dream”) Hugo looks backward in time. What do these poems reveal about aging? About regret? About desires? Fears? How do these poems use the patterns of dreams? What does the poet do to move these from dreams to poetry?

Ideas of social classes:

Many of Hugo’s poems offer perspectives from the working classes. How are these lives characterized in “The Milltown Union Bar,” “Missoula Softball Tournament,” “1614 Boren” or “Duwamish”? Choose a poem and discuss the representation of and attitudes toward working class people. What class position does the speaker of the poem occupy? Are there poems that take up middle class life? How do these poems express life from the perspective of social classes? Do the characters in the poems work? If so,what kinds of work do they do? Do we see these people when they are not at work? What are they doing?

Discussion group ideas:

Choose 5 poems from the collection for a mini anthology. Discuss your reasons for the selection. Which poems did you include? Why? How did you decide which to include and which to exclude? What are your criteria? What title would you give to your mini anthology?

Select two or three poems set in Montana and two or three set in Washington State. What patterns emerge from these settings? What kinds of image clusters are associated with each place? What kinds of emotions, recollections, and thoughts does each place inspire?

Prof. Nancy Cook, Department of English
The University of Montana-Missoula

These titles are suggested companion books for the CDs: Check your local library, use WorldCat’s “Find in a Library” to list Hugo’s books in your local library via your zip code, or click the link to order from Fact and Fiction Books in Missoula: