The following version of this poem was used to create this guide: Hughes, Frieda. “Medusa.” Poets.org, https://poets.org/poem/medusa.

Note that all parenthetical citations within the guide refer to the lines of the poem from which the quotations are taken.

“Medusa” first appeared in Waxworks, the third collection by English poet Frieda Hughes. As the daughter of prominent American poets Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes, Frieda Hughes is often compared (unfavorably) to the legacies of her parents. Her work follows in Plath’s tradition by drawing from mythology and uses similar techniques. This poem is inspired by the Greek myth of the gorgon Medusa, a subject Sylvia Plath also explored in her work, and uses it as a metaphor for the female voice.