The post-Romantic myth of the dissolute drunken poet – exemplified by Thomas and made iconic by his death in New York – has fatally skewed the image of poets in our culture. Novelists can be stable, savvy, politically adept and in control, but poets should be melancholic, doomed and self-destructive. Is this just a myth, or is there some essential truth behind it: that great poems only come when a poet's life is pushed right to an emotional knife-edge of acceptability, safety, security? What is the price of poetry?
In this book, two contemporary poets undertake a series of journeys – across Britain, America and Europe – to the death places of poets of the past, in part as pilgrims, honouring inspirational writers, but also as investigators, interrogating the myth. The result is a book that is, in turn, enlightening and provocative, eye-wateringly funny and powerfully moving.
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Book Description Paperback. Condition: new. Paperback. An entertaining journey into how the deaths of great poets have shaped our culture's distorted sense of poetryFrom Dylan Thomas's eighteen straight whiskies to Sylvia Plath's desperate suicide in the gas oven of her Primrose Hill kitchen; from Chatterton's Pre-Raphaelite demise to Keats' death warrant in a smudge of arterial blood, the deaths of poets have often cast a backward shadow on their work.The post-Romantic lore of the dissolute drunken poet has fatally skewed the image of poets in our culture. Novelists can be stable, savvy, politically adept and in control, but poets should be melancholic, doomed and self-destructive. Is this just an illusion , or is there some essential truth behind it? What is the price of poetry?In this book, two contemporary poets embark on a series of journeys to the death places of poets of the past, in part as pilgrims, but also as investigators, interrogating the myth. The post-Romantic lore of the dissolute drunken poet has fatally skewed the image of poets in our culture. What is the price of poetry?In this book, two contemporary poets embark on a series of journeys to the death places of poets of the past, in part as pilgrims, but also as investigators, interrogating the myth. Shipping may be from multiple locations in the US or from the UK, depending on stock availability. Seller Inventory # 9780099581321
Book Description paperback. Condition: New. Language: ENG. Seller Inventory # 9780099581321
Book Description Soft Cover. Condition: new. Seller Inventory # 9780099581321
Book Description Paperback. Condition: Brand New. 432 pages. 7.80x5.08x1.06 inches. In Stock. Seller Inventory # __0099581329
Book Description Condition: New. 2018. Paperback. . . . . . Seller Inventory # V9780099581321
Book Description Paperback / softback. Condition: New. New copy - Usually dispatched within 4 working days. from Chatterton's Pre-Raphaelite demise to Keats' death warrant in a smudge of arterial blood, the deaths of poets have often cast a backward shadow on their work.In this book, two contemporary poets embark on a series of journeys to the death places of poets of the past, in part as pilgrims, but also as investigators, interrogating the myth. Seller Inventory # B9780099581321
Book Description Condition: New. In. Seller Inventory # ria9780099581321_new
Book Description Condition: New. 2018. Paperback. . . . . . Books ship from the US and Ireland. Seller Inventory # V9780099581321
Book Description Condition: New. pp. 432. Seller Inventory # 370419415