> The lives and careers of 20-21st century poets can be as or more
> interesting and diverse than those of the 19th century... I think it's
> quite possible because many of us have sought out more accessibility
> to more. After all, as so many of the list members show time and again,
> there's a lot of life, and it seems just to "be here" makes it incumbent
> on us to reach deep into all its pockets, corners and curves... and then
> to bring some of something back, expressing it, getting it down. And I
> will state here, respectively, -- for the record-- that there seems to be
> more of this done by more of the members of this list than by many
> members of lists elsewhere. And, as a trophy husband, stay-at-home
> dad, "retired" political operative, music-reviewer, philosophical poetry
> essayist, and chief cook and bottle-washer, I'd just like to add: I find
> that simple fact a balm.
Yes it kind of boggles the imagination to imagine Keats with a mistress
studying to be a Barrister at the University of London, Shelley married to
the UK Director of Red Cross' Blood Supply Services, Byron's favorite girl
friend as Director of Financial Services for the Hudson Bay Company, and on
and on. All that would have given Romantic Poetry and the 19th Century an
interesting twist - at least a much more layered - and no doubt embattled
sense of gender, power and relationships.
Oh well, still seduced by pure beauty & all of that,
Stephen V
Blog: http://stephenvincent.durationpress.com
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