He wrote, "I might say, that I had as much talent for Leavis-style dismantling of texts as anyone else, I even had a special bent for it, nearly a sadistic streak there, but it seemed to me not only a foolish game, but deeply destructive of myself." In his third year, he transferred to Anthropology and Archaeology, both of which would later inform his poetry. Hughes felt encouraged and supported by Hodgart's supervision, but attended few lectures and wrote no more poetry at this time, feeling stifled by literary academia and the "terrible, suffocating, maternal octopus" of literary tradition. In 1951 Hughes initially studied English at Pembroke College under M.J.C. He learnt many of the plays by heart and memorised great quantities of W. Hughes was stationed as a ground wireless mechanic in the RAF on an isolated three-man station in east Yorkshire, a time during which he had nothing to do but "read and reread Shakespeare and watch the grass grow". His two years of national service (1949–51) passed comparatively easily. ĭuring the same year, Hughes won an open exhibition in English at Pembroke College, Cambridge, but chose to do his national service first. By 16, he had no other thought than being a poet.
In 1946, one of Hughes's early poems, "Wild West", and a short story were published in the grammar school magazine The Don and Dearne, followed by further poems in 1948. Poet Harold Massingham also attended this school and was also mentored by Fisher. Hughes was mentored by his sister Olwyn, who was well versed in poetry, and another teacher, John Fisher. Teachers Miss McLeod and Pauline Mayne introduced him to the poets Gerard Manley Hopkins and T.S. Hughes attended Mexborough Grammar School, where a succession of teachers encouraged him to write, and develop his interest in poetry. He came to view fishing as an almost religious experience. Hughes became close to the family and learnt a lot about wildlife from Wholly's father, a gamekeeper. A close friend at the time, John Wholly, took Hughes to the Crookhill estate above Conisbrough where the boys spent great swathes of time. His earliest poem "The Thought Fox", and earliest story "The Rain Horse" were recollections of the area. During his time in Mexborough, he explored Manor Farm at Old Denaby, which he said he would come to know "better than any place on earth". He acted as retriever when his elder brother gamekeeper shot magpies, owls, rats and curlews, growing up surrounded by the harsh realities of working farms in the valleys and on the moors. In Poetry in Making he recalled that he was fascinated by animals, collecting, and drawing toy lead creatures. His parents ran a newsagent's and tobacconist's shop. He attended the Burnley Road School until he was seven before his family moved to Mexborough, then attending Schofield Street junior school. Hughes loved hunting and fishing, swimming, and picnicking with his family. Hughes noted, "my first six years shaped everything". The stories of Flanders fields filled Hughes's childhood imagination (later described in the poem "Out").
He was one of just 17 men of his regiment to return from the Dardanelles Campaign (1915–16). He narrowly escaped being killed when a bullet lodged in a pay book in his breast pocket. Hughes's father, William, a joiner, was of Irish descent and had enlisted with the Lancashire Fusiliers in the First World War and fought at Ypres. Most of the more recent generations of his family had worked in the clothing and milling industries in the area. One of his mother's ancestors had founded the Little Gidding community. Hughes's sister Olwyn Marguerite Hughes (1928–2016) was two years older and his brother Gerald (1920–2016) was ten years older than himself. Hughes was born at 1 Aspinall Street, in Mytholmroyd in the West Riding of Yorkshire, to William Henry (1894–1981) and Edith (Farrar) Hughes (1898–1969), and raised among the local farms of the Calder Valley and on the Pennine moorland. Hughes's birthplace in Mytholmroyd, Yorkshire
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