Imported Poems

So, I wrote two whole pages (and there was much rejoicing!) I could probably be done now if it weren't for the little satans outside jack-hammering away on my balcony. I can't write to jack-hammering (although I noticed when I turned on my stereo - the new Cruxshadows song - at maximum volume they ceased their aural torture).

Here's the first two intro paragraphs and then what I've written so far:

The coexistence of madness with genius, although not scientifically verified, has nevertheless been established if only through historical reoccurrence, and has been the topic of much speculation since the days of Aristotle, who noted “La., Nullum magnum ingenium sine mixtura dementia” (There is no genius without a touch of madness”). (1) Whether creativity, defined as “conception outside established boundaries”, is a natural byproduct of insanity, defined as “thoughts and behavior outside established parameters” is up to debate, but if any provide proof of this relationship, it is Byron and Wilde, both of whom demonstrated sufficient symptoms of mental illness and who, consequently if not ironically, became cynosures of society as much for their resulting personal vices as for their artistic virtues.

Born only 30 years after Byron’s death in 1824, Wilde appeared to be the second incarnation of the “mad, bad“ poet, manifesting both in artistic sentiment and lifestyle all of Byron‘s eccentricities, but there were key differences. Wilde’s perpetual grandiosity and stability of mood are suggestive of the Axis II, Cluster B Narcissistic Personality Disorder while Byron, noted for his cyclical temperament coupled with alternating rages and depressions, suffered from Axis I Bipolar Disorder. Despite their varying madness, however, both became celebrities due to their culte du soi-même, which was reflected both in their lives and their work, and both experienced consequential downfalls, living their later years in self-imposed exile from England before dying at an early age.

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Like most neurotic sufferers, the origin of their disorders can be traced to both genetic and environmental factors, and more specifically, to experiences from childhood. Oscar Wilde’s father, a notable libertine whose energetic interludes were equally dispersed with sloughs of despondency, fostered three illegitimate children prior to marriage while Wilde’s mother, a self-fashioned poet with the adopted pseudonym “Speranza”, displayed all the eccentricities that eventually would characterize Wilde’s own posturing. In a letter written to a Scottish friend on November 22, 1854, Lady Wilde referred to herself as a “Joan of Arc” who “was never meant for marriage”. “Behold me -- me, Speranza, rocking a cradle at this present writing,” she scribed to her friend. The cradle she referred to held her second son, Oscar Fingal O’Flahertie Wills Wilde, whom she would “treat as a daughter, rather than a son in dress, habit and companions” for the first ten years of his life. In a photo of Oscar at age 4, he is wearing a dress and tights, with his long, curled hair pulled back by a headband.(2)

If Wilde’s parents were capriciously absurd and eccentric, then Byron’s parents were outright mad. Born from a long line of swashbuckling naval officers, including Admiral John “Foulweather” Byron and Uncle William Byron, whose sobriquets include “The Wicked Lord” and “The Devil Byron”, Bryon inherited not only title and land, but also a great deal of insanity. Notorious for his impulsive and scandalous behavior, Byron’s uncle, William the Wicked not only slew his cousin and mounted the murderous weapon on the wall of his estate, but also shot his coachman in a disagreement, throwing the body onto his wife before assuming the reins himself. In addition, he built a play-fort at Newcastle Abbey and was also noted for keeping crickets at his estate. Despite all his eccentricities, however, William seemed to some extent aware of his bad blood, opposing his son’s intermarriage as one that would “produce children plagued with madness”. (4)

Byron’s own father, Captain John “Mad Jack” Byron, was perhaps less bizarre but certainly no less mad. An extravagant spender and incorrigible womanizer, two habits that would eventually characterize the bard himself, Captain John squandered his first wife’s inheritance, then married the poet’s mother in order to squander his second’s. Despite his father’s absentee status, Byron would eerily grow to resemble his father both in physical and behavioral traits. Biographer Fiona MacCarthy states, “They were linked by their good looks, their charm, their instability and their emotional evasiveness. They were linked too by their incest…” which apparently runs in families. Just as Mad Jack had documented relations with his sister “Frances Leigh”, so Lord Byron would eventually have relations with his half-sister Augusta Byron - although to his credit, the two met only in adulthood and were related by one parent.

While Byron’s father was lubricious and debauched, Byron’s mother was moody and volatile, and most likely the carrier of the mental illness that would plague Byron for the rest of his life. Her inconsistent treatment of her small son ranged from extreme indulgence, when she would shower him with kisses and tender epithets, to explosive and violent castigation, at which time he became the recipient of such cognomens as “lame brat” as well as the target for flying objects. (4) Her moodiness was not an isolated case in her family either. Numerous of her relatives had committed suicide, including her grandfather (after whom Lord Byron was named): George Gordon of Gight.

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PS: This is my new vision of youthful beauty - 22 year old Chase Crawford. I wish I could buy him and place him in the corner by my window, so when the sun rose in the morning I could watch the sunlight run it’s maize fingers through that amber hair.

To touch him is to taint him with something less sublime.

If anyone says the name "Zac" I go for blood. Zac is hyper-effiminate (yes, even for me! Far too girly!) but Chase looks like a Junior at Oxford - an English schoolboy - all innocent with a mischievous glint in his eye. >(-;<