Friday, November 10, 2006

So who else is married to a poet?

I decided to google ‘married to a poet’, to see what other people might be writing on the subject and get some ideas for posts.

The first hit was
http://baconandehs.blogspot.com/2004/08/im-married-to-poet.html. An ode to a stye. Interesting, but not compelling, and obviously not particularly representative of that particular blog. Onwards to Sylvia Plath, that most famous (among feminists at least) of poet’s wives, a phenomenal poet herself - an unsurprising find. Plath and her husband Ted Hughes make many appearances in my little google-trawl. Alice Notley married a poet. When he died, she married another poet. She also wrote poetry, and one of her collections is titled Waltzing Matilda, which endears her to this Australian blogger immediately.

Maybe ‘how to marry a poet’ might yield more interesting results? Yes, we have a news article from 2004 about some woman planning to marry a dead French poet, a poem (what else) entitled I think that I shall marry a poet, and a ballet, La Esmeralda, where Esmeralda consents to marry the poet Gringoire to save him from death. Much like my situation really.

And finally, the definitive site I was looking for - Yahoo Answers on ‘would you marry a mathematician or a poet?’ (I managed a physicist and a poet, in the same marriage). I wonder if these people (12 year olds no doubt) actually know any real poets?
Poet, they tend to be more gentle, and caring
i would marry the poet, because well he would be writing me poetry
in my opinion poet. it means he's romantic and has a softer side
From their answers, I’m thinking not. Not that I haven’t had poems written for me, but these answers just scream of poet clichés – romantic, caring, gentle. Poets are people. They’re angry, cheerful, sad, jealous, bitchy, loving, sullen, funny and sometimes boring, just like the rest of us.

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