| February 1, 2003 |
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Neurotic Poets
Since  Aristotle, many have noted the link between creativity and madness. This site examines several poets whose turbulent emotional lives fueled their brilliant creations. Lord Byron was born with a lame foot and tended to obesity, but still managed to become the archetypical dashing, romantic figure. The dark and dismal themes of Edgar Allen Poe's works may have been inspired by early family deaths, while the failure of a youthful romance led to alcoholism. Romance also led to trauma for pre-Raphaelite painter and poet Dante Gabriel Rossetti, who, after his first wife's death, withdrew into his own world of exotic animals, séances, insomnia, psychosomatic illness, and drunkenness. The reclusive spinster Emily Dickinson was never published in her lifetime, and fame drove Welsh writer Dylan Thomas to the bottle. Reckless, flamboyant Oscar Wilde flouted the moral conventions of his time and paid the price. Sylvia Plath's life-long depression ended in suicide, spurred by her husband's adultery. We may never know why amazing art is linked to mental instability, but the lives of these tortured artists may be strong evidence of the connection. (in Literature) |
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