Today on Book Break we are looking at some of the writers behind the books.
I am going to tell you about some of history's most outrageous
poets, with some of the best life stories. And I will of course put links
in the description box to where you can find some of their poetry, which I think
you will be even more intrigued to read after you
hear some of what I'm gonna tell you. I of course had to begin with arguably
the most famous of them all: the eccentric poet Lord
Byron - and where even to start with the list of
weird things about him? Almost as famous as his poetry were his
notorious sexual escapades. Apparently doctors even
had to advise him to cut down on the amount of sex he was having as
they thought it might be dangerous for his health.
And when he was at Cambridge he was told he wasn't allowed to bring his pet dog
with him - and so he brought a pet bear instead.
He used to terrify other students by walking around the grounds
walking his bear on a lead, and even at one point tried to get him enrolled as a
student. But even on top of all of that, possibly
the strangest thing about him was his passion for the macabre:
decorating his dining room with a coffin, and allegedly turning the skulls of his
ancestors into flower pots or drinking goblets. So he was definitely
quite the character. But to meet another poet whose sexuality
was a large part of their reputation, let's go all the way back to the ancient
Greeks and meet Sappho. Sappho was a poet whose surviving poetry
often focuses on love between women. We now have the word
sapphic taken from her name, and she was from the isle of Lesbos
where we get the word lesbian, so she was pretty much a gay icon - not
least because, possibly to counter any suspicion about
her sexuality, she claimed to have a husband named
Kerkylas of Andros. Andros meaning man, and kerkylas
referring to male genitalia, so it's possible that
this "husband" may have been a bit of a joke. For a very
different kind of literary figure, we have Meera or Mirabai, a 16th century
Hindu poet who allegedly wrote thousands of poems
dedicated to the god Krishna, though experts do now disagree over how
many of the poems can actually be attributed to her. Meera
was so dedicated to Krishna that she actually claimed him as her husband
and so refused to acknowledge the man that she was actually married to.
Her in-laws were completely scandalized to see her singing and dancing in public,
openly conversing with holy men, so shocked in fact they allegedly
tried to have her killed. Meera did eventually leave her marital home,
probably a good idea seeing as they were trying to kill her, and became a
wandering saint, refusing to fit into the role expected
for married women. For someone else who is the centre of
multiple rumours we have Christopher or Kit Marlowe. He was a poet
but also a playwright, and his notoriety as a playwright comes
largely from the long-standing debate as to
whether he actually wrote any of Shakespeare's plays.
And these theories range from asserting that he co-authored some of
Shakespeare's plays, to some people who believe that his
death was actually faked to cover the fact that he wrote
Shakespeare's entire body of work. And these aren't the only rumours that
followed him. He was also suspected of being an
atheist (controversial at the time), gay (also controversial at the time), and a
government spy. Even today very little is known as to
the truth of any of these rumours. Now let's look at some warriors, starting
with Khawlah bint al-Azwar who, living in around 600 AD, was the
daughter of the chief of an Arab tribe, and along
with her brother was raised to be skilled in the art of
poetry, horseback riding, and swordsmanship. That last one in
particular came in handy when her brother was taken hostage
during a war against the Byzantines, so Khawla disguised herself as a man in
order to join the fight to save her brother. And she turned out to be
such a good warrior that even when her identity as a woman was revealed
they still didn't kick her out, because she was just that good.
And she did save her brother. Qiu jin was a poet and a revolutionary,
known as China's Joan of Arc. She was born in China but moved to Japan to
study, where she became well-known amongst her
acquaintances for practicing martial arts and wearing western male
dress. And Qiu jin was a strong feminist. One of her poems began with the line "do
not tell me women are not the stuff of heroes".
And a lot of her poems were about female warriors. And Qiu jin fought hard
throughout her life to make the world better for women, and for any poor or
oppressed people. She founded her own Chinese women's
journal and she ended up becoming involved in the military training of
revolutionaries. When this was uncovered she was publicly
beheaded, instantly becoming a national hero and
remaining to this day a symbol of women's independence. But
where Qiu jin stood out for her brave fight for justice,
other poets have gone down in history for less savoury reasons.
For example Francois Villon is considered one of the finest
lyric poets in French history, but that doesn't mean he was a great guy.
Villon was always getting involved in drunken brawls, in one of which he
actually stabbed a priest to death. He was
banished, but then given a royal pardon, but then after he led a band of robbers
to steal from the University of Paris he was banished again. And prison records
show that he never really seemed to learn from his mistakes,
continuing to lead a life of violence and crime, but all the while
churning out these beautifully intricate poems about
love, suffering, and lost time. Another poet who couldn't seem to help getting
into fights was Alexander Pushkin. He only lived to the age of 37 but in
that time managed to be involved in at least
29 duels, the last of which is the one that killed him. And he seemed to get
into duels over the slightest thing - from insults about his poetry to
comments on his bad manners (which is a little ironic)
to even arguments about the weather. And finally of course I had to include the
famously dark and gothic Edgar Allan Poe. But what's particularly odd about Edgar
Allan Poe is that despite all of the mystery and
macabre in his work, he wasn't particularly odd at all. You
won't find any of Byron's behaviour here. Much of his reputation was actually
invented by a bitter literary rival who made up stories of madness and drug
addiction that still are associated with his name today.
And talking of his name, where Edgar sounds suitably gothic and serious,
he often referred to himself as the considerably more normal
Eddie. The weirdest thing he did do was he did marry his 13 year old cousin when
he was 27, which is very weird by today's standards
especially, and his death was definitely bizarre: he was found stumbling through
the streets of Baltimore wearing somebody else's clothes.
He was brought into hospital and died four days later, but still
nobody really knows what killed him. Right before he died he was heard
repeating the name Reynolds. So maybe Reynolds is the only
one who knows the true story, whoever they were.
So if any of those stories have caught your attention, like I said I will leave
links in the description box below so you can go and check out some of their
poetry. And I would love to know who are your
favourite larger-than-life figures from history.
Do leave us a comment letting us know, and if you enjoyed this little history
lesson, I think you'll also like this video we
made on real life artists who inspired books. So I will
link that here so you can check it out, and we'll see you next time!