HUGHES (TED, born 1930, poet, Poet Laureate) AUTOGRAPH DRAFT OF A FINE POEM entitled 'Playing with an Archetype,' comprising twenty-five lines, 1 page, folio, written on the verso of a typed page probably from 'Oedipus Crow', one filing hole, one small brown stain in the margin

While they gambled for their clothes
It was amusing,
Soon he lost every last stitch...

The the past & the future -- one throw
All attendant & invisible worlds -- one throw
She put them into her bag...

He hung there echoless, in nothing...
Nailed where the moment occupied
Crossed the single place he occupied
And now, with a smile
She won his cry

Louder & louder he unravelled it for her
And more & tearing more, & on & on
Endlessly into her bag.

Autograph drafts of unpublished poems by Ted Hughes are rarely offered for sale.

£1,500