Poe, Sexton, Plath, Wilde, Shelley, and
Byron
Lord Byron 1788-1824
•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 halfsister
•Made famous by Childe Harold’s
“ 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 ~
Pilgrimage
•Fought with the Greeks against the Turks
•Died of a fever shortly after suffering a
stroke at the age of 36
Percy Bysshe Shelley 1792-1822
•Infatuated with science – especially electricity
•Teased so much as a child that he stabbed another with a
fork
•Took anti-depressants for “nervousness”
•A revolutionary
•Kicked out of Oxford for writing an atheist paper
•Good friend to Lord Byron
•While married to his first wife, Harriet (also the mother of
his children), he fell in love with Mary Godwin
“ ... insanity hung as by a hair
suspended over the head of
Shelley ... ” ~ Shelley's cousin
Medwin ~
•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
Edgar Allan Poe
1809-1849
“ I was never really insane
except upon occasions when my
heart was touched. ”
• Biological parents, both actors, died of
•Began using opium
tuberculosis by the time Poe was 2 years old
•Adoptive father dies and left him nothing
•Adopted by the wealthy John and Frances Allan
•Married his 13-year old Cousin Virginia
•Early influences were stories told by house
slaves and sea merchants
•Always in debt, always poor, always an addict
•Began writing poetry in his early teens
•Even though The Raven won him instant fame,
•Attended West Point where he studied Byron
and Shelley
it was not copyrighted and he never earned a
cent for it
Emily Dickinson
1830-1886
•“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
"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
•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
Oscar Wilde
•Deeply affected by the death of sister Isola (8y/o)
•Writer, poet, and lecturer extraordinaire
1854-1900
“ I turned the good
things of my life to
evil, and the evil
things of my life to
good... ” ~ Oscar
Wilde ~
•Had a penchant for prostitutes, contracting syphilis
•Though he married, 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
Anne Sexton 1928-1974
•Poems record her battle with mental illness
•Several stays in mental institutions
•Began writing poetry as therapy
•“Confessional poetry”
•Successful career as writer, lecturer, and professor
“Even so, I must admire
your skill.
You are so gracefully
insane.”
~Anne Sexton~
•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
Sylvia Plath 1932-1963
•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”
“ 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' ~
•Suffered from bouts of depression, insomnia,
and suicidal thoughts
•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