It's been reported that a new book on the life of Keats suggests he was drowsy and inspired by opiates far longer than had been hitherto claimed, particularly in 1818-1819, around the time of his brother's death from TB, and some of Keats' greatest poems. Laudanum, opium, heroin - take your pick, these and other drugs have been used by people for centuries; some of the people who used them were artists, even geniuses; most were not, some monumental bores. As someone noted years ago in the cult film Liquid Sky, David Bowie was Bowie before the drugs. I expect without Keats' poetic skills, insights and brilliance, the drugs wouldn't have worked. New worlds swim into view on peaks without unnatural highs. Peeking into Chapman will do.
THAT HANDSOME MAN A PERSONAL BRIEF REVIEW BY TODD SWIFT I could lie and claim Larkin, Yeats , or Dylan Thomas most excited me as a young poet, or even Pound or FT Prince - but the truth be told, it was Thom Gunn I first and most loved when I was young. Precisely, I fell in love with his first two collections, written under a formalist, Elizabethan ( Fulke Greville mainly), Yvor Winters triad of influences - uniquely fused with an interest in homerotica, pop culture ( Brando, Elvis , motorcycles). His best poem 'On The Move' is oddly presented here without the quote that began it usually - Man, you gotta go - which I loved. Gunn was - and remains - so thrilling, to me at least, because so odd. His elegance, poise, and intelligence is all about display, about surface - but the surface of a panther, who ripples with strength beneath the skin. With Gunn, you dressed to have sex. Or so I thought. Because I was queer (I maintain the right to lay claim to that
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