Spring will marry you. A promise!Cuckoo brings the message: May.O new clothes! O get your house ready!Expectation keeps you starry.But at which church and on what day?In these poems Ted Hughes invites the reader to try and catch the spring (but she's elusive); to take a closer look at the March calf; to listen to the happiness of the summer grass; and to notice the'weak-neck snowdrops' in winter. Earth is revealed in all its surprising richness and rawness, and so is humankind's own constantly changing relationship with the seasons.

TED HUGHES is widely considered one of the greatest writers of the twentieth century. He was born in Yorkshire in 1930, and was Poet Laureate from 1984 until his death in 1998. Hughes co-founded the Children's Laureateship with Michael Morpurgo. In 1974 Hughes was awarded the Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry. In 1977 he was awarded an OBE for services to Literature, and was awarded the OM in 1998.