poets | Lucky Otters Haven

dylan
Dylan Thomas (1914 – 1953) wrote one of the most powerful and moving poems of all time, and this one has always been my favorite.

It’s been said to be about old age, but in these dark times, it has another meaning to me.

I never considered myself a patriot before, but now that my country seems to be broken beyond repair, I’m realizing I do in fact have a deep patriotic streak and am willing to fight for its survival. This poem brings out that part of me and has the power to move me to tears.

Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night

Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

And you, my father, there on the sad height,
Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

From The Poems of Dylan Thomas, published by New Directions. Copyright © 1952, 1953 Dylan Thomas. Copyright © 1937, 1945, 1955, 1962, 1966, 1967 the Trustees for the Copyrights of Dylan Thomas. Copyright © 1938, 1939, 1943, 1946, 1971 New Directions Publishing Corp. Used with permission.

Ezra Pound, ca. 1913. Photo by Alvin Langdon Coburn

Ezra Pound, expatriate poet, is listed in Wikipedia as a person having Narcissistic Personality Disorder. Following is his Wikipedia biography, and the diagnosis seems to fit. It seems very strange to me that so many people with NPD become expatriates. In running to other countries, are they symbolically trying to run away from themselves?
But you will find yourself wherever you are. So running never works.

A lot of them also write poetry. It’s as if their true self must have an outlet, and poetry is the “safest” way to release their true feelings and self-hatred. Poetry allows a measure of obliqueness and the opportunity to hide behind symbolism and obscurity. But if the poet is talented at all, and the reader at all sensitive, the true message of shame, hurt and self loathing will come through.

I resolved that at thirty I would know more about poetry than any man living … that I would know what was accounted poetry everywhere, what part of poetry was ‘indestructible’, what part could not be lost by translation and – scarcely less important – what effects were obtainable in one language only and were utterly incapable of being translated.

In this search I learned more or less of nine foreign languages, I read Oriental stuff in translations, I fought every University regulation and every professor who tried to make me learn anything except this, or who bothered me with “requirements for degrees”
–From How I Began, written in 1913

He definitely sounds like a narcissist.

Here is the Wikipedia article about Pound. His life does seem to follow the trajectory of a high functioning person with NPD, including a rendezvous with the criminal life.

The article is too long to repost here, but you can click on the above link. It’s definitely worth reading if you’re interested in poetry or NPD, or famous people with NPD.