> And John Clare thought he was Byron, and actually *wrote* poems called
> _Child Harold_ and _Don Juan_. So such delusions can be creative.
Yeah, but he also thought he was a prizefighter, and prefered that delusion
it seems. I always find it very affecting that James Joyce's daughter Lucia,
what a name in the context, ended her days in the same Northampton asylum as
Clare.
Re Lowell, the tale I recall is that he also used to go round threatening
policemen (armed entities in the US of course) when he had 'episodes'. G.S.
Fraser's indominatable widow, Paddy, who is still about in Leicester,
reckons that when Lowell stayed with them she'd never before drank so much
in her life. And as Sidney Grahame was another person their guest-list
that's saying a lot.
Best
Dave
----- Original Message -----
From: "Matthew Francis" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Saturday, August 04, 2001 12:59 PM
Subject: Re: snow/self/suicide
> Candice writes:
> >
> > One of the saddest "stories of the insane" (reverting to Porter) that
I've
> > ever heard is the delusion Lowell experienced during a
> >psychotic episode when he believed he'd written _Lycidas_. Hard not
> > to consider the cure worse than the condition for a poet under those
> > circumstances.
> >
> And John Clare thought he was Byron, and actually *wrote* poems called
> _Child Harold_ and _Don Juan_. So such delusions can be creative.
>
> Best wishes
>
> Matthew
>
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