Though I’m unfamiliar with the context of the Dylan Thomas quote it seems
quite overarching – with “circumstantial” as well as “physical” being
stressed. It might not so much suggest an actual disability as evoke a
Romantic view of the poet being out of kilter in relation to society – a
misfit. An image that has an old genealogy: you can find an equivalent in
Baudelaire’s ‘L’Albatros’ – “comme il est gauche et veule”. There
‘abnormality’ and weakness on the earth (or the deck) is integral to
majestic flight, and the last stanza makes explicit the parallel with the
poet.
There are images of disability in poets being compensatory that stretch
back to “blind Homer”. The question is whether the reader wants to
foreground the disability. In the case of Milton where the poet addresses
the disability directly it obliges the reader also to do so. When Milton
speaks of “light deny’d” in ‘On His Blindness’ he comes to view it as God’s
“milde yoak” or in P.L, Book 3 when he refers to his blindness “....So thick
a drop serene hath quencht thir Orbs” he then asserts the health of his
imagination ‘No less...”
If Pope’s Pott’s disease or Byron’s club foot are not often used as ways
of reading their work, critics have tried to do this with Leopardi’s
scoliosis and other ailments. The extremity of Leopardi’s attack on the
world may well have been exacerbated by his condition, but the validity of
the poems depends on the reader ignoring it, or considering it insufficient
cause. (This thought needs a lot more refining.)
A question that's raised by Ron Silliman’s review is how inclusive the
definition of disability should be. If I’ve understood his argument, he
would like it far more so than in the anthology which he praises. But then
it would start not only to include him but almost everyone, there being few
poets or humans in perfect health. Does Dylan Thomas’s alcoholism qualify,
or Berryman’s or Hart Crane’s or even Bishop’s binge drinking or, more
easily argued, Robert Lowell’s severe bipolar condition. As another recently
mentioned example Zanzotto’s health was severely compromised from childhood
by asthma and allergies.
I haven’t read the anthology, but reading the review I began to wonder
exactly what purpose it was serving. No poet would want their disability to
be a kind of special pleading on behalf of their work though of course if
the work could serve to challenge societal prejudices who'd object?
Jamie
----- Original Message -----
From: "Louise Bancroft" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Saturday, October 29, 2011 10:54 AM
Subject: Re: “A born writer is born scrofulous; his career is an accident
dictated by physical or circumstantial disabilities.” Dylan Thomas
Interesting quesion David, why do you ask?
(The answer is yes by the way...)
I recently (and for the first time) read out a draft poem to my MA group
about my disability and was intrigued by the various reactions. Hence my
wish to explore this area further, possibly for my dissertation.
Many thanks for the other 'pointers' you posted.
Kind regards
Louise
