The Literature Network - `Mad Genius': Stereotype With a Touch of Truth

`Mad Genius': Stereotype With a Touch of Truth

Content courtesy of

From: The Washington Post
Date: 19881129
Author:Sandy Rovner

"We poets in our youth begin in gladness / but thereof come in the end despondency and madness . . ."

-William Wordsworth

There is almost certainly more than a coincidental link between creativity (genius, if you will) and mood disorders (madness, if you will), but which comes first and how they are connected is a subject of centuries of controversy.

Alfred Lord Tennyson called it his "black blood."

George Gordon-Lord Byron-spoke of "the Byron curse."

Both poets, Byron especially, suffered repeated mood swings; both had family backgrounds of obvious mental illness, and present-day ...

Read the rest of this article with a Free Trial at HighBeam Research.

Other Articles on William Wordsworth

Works of William Wordsworth: The Life Of William Wordsworth

Strained tenderness: Wordsworth, Joanna Hutchinson, and the anxiety of sisterly resistance in "To Joanna".(William Wordsworth)(Critical Essay)

Wordsworth Variorum Archive.(archive of the poetry of William Wordsworth)

William Wordsworth.

Works of William Wordsworth: We are Seven

Deep Distresses: William Wordsworth, John Wordsworth, Sir George Beaumont (1800-1808).(Book Review)

Wordsworth's Ruth.(William Wordsworth)(Critical Essay)

Works of William Wordsworth: What Critics Have Thought Of The Work Of William Wordsworth

William Wordsworth

Wordsworth and the Ordnance Survey in Ireland: "dreaming o'er the map of things".(William Wordsworth)

Find More Articles

About Our Articles: We've partnered with Highbeam Research to provide these article excerpts for your research needs. However, due to copyright laws, we cannot publish the whole article. To view these articles in full length you'll need to use the link above to access the free trial at Highbeam.