1 - Aspects of the life of the poet

Summary

In the sketch of the poet's life which follows, I have tried to select aspects which have some bearing on the poems. But in thinking about the connections between the life and the work (to use a convenient but not always sustainable distinction) it is worth bearing in mind the words of G. Wilson Knight, writing on Shakespeare's literary ‘sources’, and applying what he says broadly to biographical matters. The arguments from ‘sources’ and also ‘intentions’

try to explain art in terms of causality, the most natural implement of intellect. Both fail empirically to explain anything essential whatever … the word ‘source’, that is, the origin whence the poetic reality flows, is a false metaphor … The ‘source’ of Anthony and Cleopatra, if we must indeed have a ‘source’ at all, is the transcendent erotic imagination of the poet.

(The Wheel of Fire, p. 8)

If we apply these words to biographical matters, we may say similarly that we cannot trace any clear causal connection between particular circumstances and particular poems. There is always the element of imagination. Short of a complete knowledge of the psychic history of the poet (which would also presuppose a set of scientific psychological laws) we must be always moving in a world of speculation. And of course the question of biographical, and also literary, influences is only a secondary matter if what we are mainly seeking is a sharper impression and a clearer understanding of the poems.