“Fame” & the lives of the poets
Tuesday February 3, 2004
In honor of Richard Brautigan’s birthday last week, Barry Spacks posted a lovely & provocative poem to the NewPoetry email discussion list, and that’s got your guides musing about “the Bitch Fame-Goddess” & the poets who climbed onto “her gerbil-treadwheel.”
Many poets cling to the romantic archetype of the outsider poet, who scribbles & rants in obscurity, and whose genius is never recognized until after death, or at least years of scrambling poverty. Just as many, however, dream of fame & fortune, working to break poetry out of its cultural isolation, to influence the minds of whole generations with their word-art. Is it worth it? We can’t ask Brautigan or Kerouac -- was it fame that killed them? But consider the contrast between our two most recent U.S. Poets Laureate: Billy Collins, a public poet if ever there was one, who seemed to be everywhere, thriving in the spotlight, and Louise Gluck, who made it clear that she would not be taken out of her very private life by the honor of the laureateship.
Related resources:
Join the discussion & tell us what you think.
Poets Laureate of the U.S.A., a Net-annotated list
Pińero & the Poet’s Life
Many poets cling to the romantic archetype of the outsider poet, who scribbles & rants in obscurity, and whose genius is never recognized until after death, or at least years of scrambling poverty. Just as many, however, dream of fame & fortune, working to break poetry out of its cultural isolation, to influence the minds of whole generations with their word-art. Is it worth it? We can’t ask Brautigan or Kerouac -- was it fame that killed them? But consider the contrast between our two most recent U.S. Poets Laureate: Billy Collins, a public poet if ever there was one, who seemed to be everywhere, thriving in the spotlight, and Louise Gluck, who made it clear that she would not be taken out of her very private life by the honor of the laureateship.
Related resources:
Join the discussion & tell us what you think.
Poets Laureate of the U.S.A., a Net-annotated list
Pińero & the Poet’s Life
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