1. Introduction to the Neurotic Poets
Poe, Sexton, Plath, Wilde, Shelley, and Byron

2. Lord Byron
Born with a lame foot, the root of his insecurities
Battled with obesity and crash dieting
A bachelor who traveled extensively
Had many affairs with women, some married and one rumored to be his half-sister
Made famous by Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage
Fought with the Greeks against the Turks
Died of a fever shortly after suffering a stroke at the age of 36
Friends with Mary and Percy Shelley and Claire Clairmont (Mary’s stepsister)
“ Wild, audacious, rebellious, ... half mad by nature; a creature made to tempt and to be tempted, to seduce and to fall, about whom there was but one certainty, that he was irreclaimable. ” ~ John Murray on Byron ~

3. Byron ~ She Walks In Beauty ~ poem with text – YouTube
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Listen to the text and respond – first thoughts, emotions, images:

4. Percy Bysshe Shelley
Infatuated with science – especially electricity
Teased so much as a child that he stabbed another with a fork
Took laudanum for “nervousness”
A revolutionary
Kicked out of Oxford for writing an atheist paper
Good friend to Lord Byron, with whom he preached and practiced “free love”
While married to his first wife, Harriet (also the mother of his children), he fell in love with Mary Godwin (Shelley)
Frankenstein legend
Suffered great family tragedies, including the deaths of many of his children and his ex-wife Harriet
Died when a storm his sailboat, the Ariel
“ ... insanity hung as by a hair suspended over the head of Shelley ... ” ~ Shelley's cousin Medwin ~

6. Edgar Allan Poe
“ I was never really insane except upon occasions when my heart was touched. ”
Biological mother, an actress, died of tuberculosis by the time Poe was 2 years old, deserted by father
Adopted by the wealthy John and Frances Allan, rumored that John was actually his biological father
Early influences were stories told by house slaves and sea merchants
Began writing poetry in his early teens
Attended University of Virginia and West Point where he studied Byron and Shelley
Began using Laudanum
Adoptive father dies and left him nothing
Married his 13-year old Cousin Virginia, who died of tuberculosis (as did all the women he loved)
Always in debt, always poor, always an addict
Even though The Raven won him instant fame, it was not copyrighted and he never earned a cent for it
Found unresponsive in the streets of Baltimore, dies a few days later

7. http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/a- dream-within-a-dream/

8. Emily Dickinson
“The woman in white”
Wrote almost 1800 poems
Left Mount Holyoke Seminary after only one year
Recluse – never left the family property (The Homestead) after the late 1860’s – may have been due to a scandalous affair with a preacher
Deeply religious, yet sometimes skeptical
Though she restricted her socialization to members of her family, she corresponded with journalists, editors and writers
Had a love affair (through letters only) with Judge Otis P. Lord
Died of kidney disease
Only 10 poems published in her lifetime, all without signature
"I never was with any one who drained my nerve power so much. Without touching her, she drew from me. I am glad not to live near her.“ –Thomas Wentworth Higgins

9. Oscar Wilde
“ I turned the good things of my life to evil, and the evil things of my life to good... ” ~ Oscar Wilde ~
Deeply affected by the death of sister Isola (8y/o)
Writer, poet, and lecturer extraordinaire
Had a penchant for prostitutes, contracting syphilis
Though he married (never divorced), he also had a penchant for affairs with young men
Sentenced to 2 years of prison for illegal homosexual activity, wherein he fell into bad debt and bad health
Died from cerebral meningitis – the result of a fall in prison that damaged his middle ear
Picture of Dorian Grey and The Importance of Being Ernest

10. Anne Sexton
Parents sexually abusive
Poems record her battle with mental illness – sex addiction, chemical dependence, clinical depression
Several stays in mental institutions
Began writing poetry as therapy
“Confessional poetry”
Successful career as model, writer, lecturer, and professor
Many suicide attempts – finally succeeded in 1974 when she put on her mother’s fur coat, poured a glass of vodka, locked herself in the garage, and started her car
“Even so, I must admire your skill. You are so gracefully insane.” ~Anne Sexton~

11. Sylvia Plath
Wrote complete poems by the age of 5, published by the age of 8
After her father’s death at the age of 8, Plath proclaimed “I’ll never speak to God again”
Suffered from bouts of depression, insomnia, and suicidal thoughts
“ If neurotic is wanting two mutually exclusive things at one and the same time, then I'm neurotic as hell. I'll be flying back and forth between one mutually exclusive thing and another for the rest of my days. ” ~ From 'The Bell Jar' ~
After her mother found out she was cutting herself, she was given electroshock therapy
Tried to kill herself by overdosing on sleeping pills
Had a thing for abusive men – continued to date a man she accused of violently raping her
Married fellow poet Ted Hughes, who she accused of strangling her on their honeymoon and who cheated on her rampantly
After the dissolution of their marriage, Plath gave her children milk and cheese, taped off their bedroom, turned the gas on in her oven, and stuck her head in
Ted’s mistress, Assia, committed the exact same suicide with her daughter a few years later

12. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6h HjctqSBwM