tiff loves words

John Keats, poetry, and the romance of a short life -

On burning brightly and finding artistic validation in death

It’s time to revel in some early 19th century English romance with the poster boy of tragedy and posthumous artistic validation. 

John Keats, the bright star, was the very personification of a young romantic. He was everything the poet stereotype brings to your mind: boyish, indulgent, fragile, star-crossed, and exceptionally talented.

And perhaps there’s a close association because Keats is so widely regarded as one of the greatest poets of all time. His work and, quite frankly, his tragic death, have influenced so many of poetry’s powerhouse writers, like T.S. Eliot, William Butler Yeats, Lord Alfred Tennyson, and as we learned in an earlier episode, Oscar Wilde.

So why exactly is Keats such a well-loved literary hero? To answer that, we have to travel back to 18th Century Great Britain.

In the middle of London and in the midst of war

John Keats was born in London on Halloween in 1795. At that time, London was in the middle of the First Industrial Revolution and, subsequently, in the early stages of an insane population boom. 

When Keats was born, the city was home to three quarters of a million people. Its paved roads and sewer systems were brand new. More and more factories were popping up. The city was starting to take shape as an urban metropolis. By the time Keats died, London’s population had doubled. By the mid 19th century, the population had exploded to 3 million people.

You can imagine the strain that influx of people had on London’s resources. In the same year Keats was born, women were actually going to prison for rioting over food. 

But what I believe is the most remarkable thing about this time period is that John Keats was born into revolution and war. 

Just a few years before his birth, America had declared independence and George Washington became its first president, the French Revolution began and King Louis XVI lost his head, and England became entangled in a long series of wars with France. In fact, England was fighting with France for almost all of Keats’s life. Napoleon, yeah that asshole, wasn’t defeated at Waterloo until Keats was 20 years old.

A difficult childhood

But lets go back to October 31, 1795, when our tragic hero was born. Keats was the oldest of five children. His father Thomas Keats worked as a groom in a horse stable that was owned by the Jennings family. Thomas, who was 31 at the time, and the young Frances Jennings, who was 19, were married in 1794. John was born just a year later. He had three younger brothers, George, Thomas, and Edward. Edward unfortunately died when he was a baby. John’s youngest sibling, his sister Franny, was born when he was eight years old.

The family was not wealthy by any means, but they lived a pretty comfortable life. They had enough money to send Keats and his younger brother to school. John and George were sent to a school in Enfield, which was about 15 miles north of London and close to their grandparents home. 

A year after starting school, their father was on the way back from visiting the boys and was thrown from his horse. He died from a skull fracture. His father’s death sent John’s life into turmoil. 

John’s mother remarried just two month’s after her first husband’s death. That second marriage ended almost as abruptly as it began and the Keats children were sent to live with their grandmother. John was just ten years old when his mother disappeared. These traumatic events pushed John into bouts of depression and extreme anxiety. 

At school, he was a fighter and a troublemaker. Keats’s childhood character was described as “always in extremes.” He befriended the headmaster’s son, Charles Cowden Clarke, who remained a lifelong mentor and comrade. He helped Keats in many ways throughout his short life and Clarke was even credited with intr

Gwendolyn Brooks: Poetry, poverty, and a Pulitzer prize

What Brooks taught the world about the beauty of community and being a black woman in America

Gwendolyn Brooks is an earthy, plainspoken, unpretentious American legend. She won countless awards including a Pulitzer prize and is known around the globe as Chicago’s First Lady of Poetry. She is a big deal. But more valuable than that, she was a teacher who shared her love of poetry with anyone — especially any child — who asked. 

Let’s learn more about what made this poet so extraordinary. 

A young poet

Gwendolyn Elizabeth Brooks was born on June 7, 1917 in Topeka, Kansas. At just six weeks old, her mother Keziah, who was a school teacher, and her father, David, who was a janitor and aspiring doctor moved the family to Chicago. They settled in Chicago’s South Side, in what is now known as the Black Metropolis–Bronzeville Historic District. 

The following year, Gwendolyn’s younger brother Raymond was born. Both children had a strong relationship with their parents. Brooks said her father would often sing to them and her mother would play the piano. Art was greatly encouraged in the Brooks house. Her parents nurtured the creativity that she and her brother expressed at early ages —  Gwendolyn with writing and Raymond with painting.

Brooks started writing when she was seven years old. She said it was her parents who encouraged her the most, as there just wasn’t an interest in creative writing in schools at the time.

Brooks ended up publishing her first poem at age 13. The poem was called “Eventide” and it was published in a popular kids magazine called American Childhood. 

By age 16, she had written more than 70 poems. 

Her mother pushed Brooks to share her work with well-known writers. At one of his speaking events, Langston Hughes, world famous poet and father of the Harlem Renaissance, read some of her work. He said, “You’re talented, keep writing, someday you’ll have a book published.” Brooks said that was all the encouragement she needed as a teenager.

She said, “I knew I would just write and keep writing as long as I was here.”

She was so inspired that she kept in touch with Hughes, often exchanging letters and poetry. Hughes had great love and respect for Brooks, helping her get published, recommending her work for awards, and even writing a column about her first book in the Chicago Defender. 

Bronzeville and beyond

Brooks graduated from Wilson Junior College in 1936 and then went on to work for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).

It was at the NAACP where she met her husband, Henry Blakely. He, too, was an aspiring writer. They were married in September of 1939.

Brooks said in her autobiography that poetry wasn’t everything and that parties were a big part of her early life in Bronzeville.

“My husband and I knew writers, knew painters, knew pianists and dancers and actresses, knew photographers galore. There were always weekend parties to be attended, where we merry Bronzevillians could find each other and earnestly philosophize sometimes on into the dawn, over martinis and Scotch and coffee, and an ample buffet. Of course, in that time, it was believed, still, that the society could be prettied, quieted, cradled, sweetened, if only people talked enough, glared at each other yearningly enough, waited enough.”

Life started changing fast for Brooks. In 1940, she gave birth to her first child, her son Henry Blakely III. A year later, she started participating in local poetry workshops.

In 1944, two of her poems were published in Poetry magazine, which was a goal of hers since she was a teenager.

In 1945, she published her first book of poetry, A Street in Bronzeville. It was like a love letter to her beloved neighbor. The book received great reviews from literary critics and became a cataly

Oscar Wilde: Poetry and aesthetics

Take a closer look at the Irish playwright’s life and the fashionable, indulgent myth he built up around himself

Episode 4 is a real treat because we’re discussing a feminist icon, a Mexican legend, a religious prodigy, and one of the most loved female poets in recent history. 

In her lifetime, Juana Ines de la Cruz wrote several plays, poems, and essays. Two volumes of works were published while she was alive. The last reprint of her original works was published in 1725. The first modern edition of her poetry wasn’t published until 1940, some 215 years later. 

Love for her work was rekindled in the 20th century and her writing is considered some of the greatest poetry in the modern world.

The devotion of Juana Inés de la Cruz

Feminist icon, Mexican legend, and one of the greatest poets in recent history

No other female poet has made an impact like Juana Inés de la Cruz. She has become a feminist icon, a Mexican legend, and one of the most loved poets in recent history.

Juana Inés was a rebel and a prodigy. To understand her work, you first have to understand her life and her world.

Daughter of the church

Juana Inés de la Cruz was born Juana Ramirez de Asbaje, most likely on December 2, 1648. There is no official record of her birth remaining but there is a baptismal certificate of “a daughter of the church” that lists her aunt and uncle as godparents. What’s a daughter of the church, you ask? Well that’s a lovely 17th century way of saying she was a bastard.

Juana Inés was born in San Miguel Nepantla in New Spain, which is now Tepetlixpa in the State of Mexico.

 

New Spain — 17th century map

Her parents were reportedly poor. Her mother, Isabel Ramirez, had six children. Her father, Pedro Manuel de Asbaje, is actually almost a complete mystery. Juana herself says he was a Basque but not much else is known about him. In fact, there are rumors that he could have even been a priest, which would have been a huge scandal at that time. Escandlo!

In the 17th century, the Renaissance was taking its last breath and there was a small pause before the Age of Revolutions. But things were far from quiet. When Juana was born, the world was in the middle of upheaval, cultural shifts, the rise of scientific experiment, and of course, wars.

Let’s add some familiar context so you can understand just how crazy things were in the 1600s. Shakespeare was penning masterpieces at the same time that Galileo was discovering the moons of Jupiter. Protestants were fighting Catholics in the Thirty Years War, the Ming Dynasty was falling, and England was becoming a republic and then shortly after going straight back to a monarchy. Issac Newton was making some big discoveries, Pocahontas was meeting King James, Peter the Great was rising to power, and the Intellectual Enlightenment was kicking off.

That’s a lot!

A huge contributor to the chaos and magic of the 17th century was trade. People were making money and making voyages to find crops, precious metals, and humans to convert to Christianity. It was only about 100 years before Juana was born that Cortés was landing on the beaches of Veracruz and becoming BFFs with anyone who hated the Aztecs.

In Mexico, or New Spain at the time, as you can imagine, Spaniards had all the power. Bloodlines meant everything back then and people didn’t marry outside of their class. So Juana being a daughter of the Church meant, regardless of her talents or skills, her future was limited.

 

Juana the prodigy, Juana the rebel

Back then, the church was at the center of everything, including the educational system. Women were taught to read the Bible and other religious texts, but rarely taught to write. And when I say women, I really mean women of privilege.

Juana Inés is sometimes regarded as this poor, rebellious genius, who, against all odds, got an education and published her writing for the masses.

And it is very true that she was a rebel and, by all accounts, a genius. But it’s also true that her grandfather owned a Hacienda and she had shelves of books surrounding

When most people hear Beat Generation, a few big names rise to the surface of their brains. Kerouac, Ginsberg, Corso.

But one name sometimes gets buried behind the scenes: Lawrence Ferlinghetti.

If you ask him, Ferlinghetti says that he was never a Beat poet. Yet that was the world in which he immersed himself, as a publisher, a writer, a performer, and a book store proprietor.

If Ferlinghetti wasn’t a Beat poet, he certainly was the fire that lit the Beat Generation and kept it going through the years.

In fact, just a few years ago, City Lights released a 60th anniversary edition of the Pocket Poets Anthology edited by a then 96 year old Lawrence Ferlinghetti.

So just who is this reluctant icon and how did he become a catalyst for one of the most prominent American poetry movements? Let’s find out!

Lawrence Monsanto Ferling was born on March 24, 1919 in Bronxville, New York. He was the youngest of five children.

His father Carlo, was an Italian immigrant who shorten his last name upon arriving in America. His mother Clemence was a native New Yorker.

But the truth is, Ferlinghetti never really knew his parents. His father died months before he was born. And shortly after his birth, stricken by grief, his mother was placed in a mental health facility.

His aunt, Emily, took him to France and he spent much of his childhood there. In fact, French was his first language.

 

Emily and Ferlinghetti moved back to New York and fell on hard times. Ferlinghetti ended up staying with well-to-do family and that’s really where his love for literature was fostered.

He finished his primary education at a prep school in Massechuttes and ended up studying journalism at the University of North Carolina, at Chapel Hill.

After he graduated in 1941, he joined the Navy. You don’t have to be a history buff to know what Ferlinghetti was signing up for. During the second World War, he served on submarines and was even part of the Invasion of Normandy. What it must have been like to see such carnage on the beaches of his adopted home.

According to his City Lights biography, he was also on hand to see the aftermath of atomic bomb at Nagasaki. With such raw experiences like these, it’s no wonder why Ferlinghetti became a vocal anti-war activist.

But there was a small silver lining from his time in the Navy, because he used the G.I. Bill to further his education, getting a master’s in English Literature from Columbia University and a doctorate in comparative literature from the University of Paris.

Which brings us to the most important move of Ferlinghetti’s life. San Francisco. Around 1951, he took a job teaching French to adults in the city. He spent his free time painting and writing critiques of art.

Contrary to his impressive educational background, Ferlinghetti believed that art shouldn’t

be trapped behind the doors of universities or museums

He believed that poetry, especially, wasn’t about literary criticism and stuffy academics. No. Poetry was an artform for the people. It belonged to them, and it belonged to the streets.

Alongside Peter D. Martin, Ferlinghetti started a magazine called City Lights in 1953.

Soon after, the pair opened the City Lights Pocket Book Shop. It was the first all paperback bookstore in the States. Ferlinghetti describes City Lights as a literary meeting place where people could read, meet, and exchange ideas.

Side note: It truly is! It’s one of the most inviting and comfortable book stores I’ve ever walked into. It feels homey and there are plenty of nooks to sit down and read a book without someone bugging you. My favorite room, of course, was the quiet poetry room at the top of the stairs.

 

 

The next natural step for Ferlinghetti and City Lights was to venture into publishing. One of the first books was a pocket poet version of Howl by Alan Ginsberg in 1955. Ferlinghetti had heard Ginsberg perform Howl and was mesmerized. It’s said tha

Rainer Maria Rilke is a poet who is beloved and celebrated for his work by artists everywhere. Better known for an inspiring collection of letters than he is for his own poetry, Rilke is a compelling personality and truly a product of a different time. Let's get to know Rilke and the world in which he lived, as we dive into this special piece called Her Going Blind.

The lonely world of Rainer Maria Rilke, his quest for mentors, and a closer look at Her Going Blind

Did you know that one of world’s most beloved poets was not exactly a nice guy?

Rainer Maria Rilke is one of the world’s most beloved poets. Rilke is adored by young artists everywhere, has been called a jerk by certain critics, and even revered as a new age philosopher by others.

His words have inspired countless writers, filmmakers, musicians, painters, and other artists — even Lady Gaga has a Rilke tattoo.

Growing up Rilke

Rilke was born in 1875 in Prague, in what was then the Austro-Hungarian empire. His full name was René Karl Wilhelm Johann Josef Maria Rilke. (Yeah!)

His family was German and middle class. His father, an army veteran, worked for the railway and his mother was an upper-middle class socialite.

A year before Rilke was born, his parents had lost an infant daughter. So when Rilke came along, his mother gave him a feminine name and dressed him up in girl’s clothes. Later in life, Rilke said that his mother treated him like a little doll.

Although it was his mother he could thank for his love of poetry, he blamed her for a childhood filled with dark memories, illness, and fear.

At age 11, he was sent to a military boarding school. He hated it. After he was transferred to another school at the age of 16, he was discharged for health issues. He had constant headaches and fevers. In fact, health issues plagued Rilke for the remainder of his life.

In 1894, at the age of 19, his first book of poetry, Life and Songs, was published. In 1895, he published his second book of poetry, Lares’ Sacrifice, and enrolled at a university in Prague to study philosophy.

A few years later, Rilke moved to Munich to study art history. It was there that he met the woman who would become his mentor, his muse, his lover, and a lifelong friend.

When they first met, Lou Andreas-Salomé was 36, married, and a well known literary critic and writer. She was one of the most influential people in Rilke’s life. In fact, Salomé convinced him to change his girly first name to something more masculine, hence “Rainer” — it means wise army in German.

Through Salomé, Rilke is introduced to a circle of intellectuals, writers, and artists. In 1899, he accompanies her and her husband to Russia.

Salomé sets up a meeting with the world renown author, Leo Tolstoy, in hopes that Tolstoy would mentor Rilke and help him flourish as a writer. The meeting DOES NOT go well. Yikes.

But all is not lost. Rilke ends up falling in love with Russia and its people. While there, he writes one of his most famous and well-regarded works during his lifetime: a trilogy called The Book of Hours.

When he leaves Russia, he moves into an artist colony in Germany. There he meets sculptor Clara Westhoff. At age 26, Rilke marries Clara and the two have a daughter.

Newlyweds

Meeting the master

Through Clara, Rilke was introduced to the famous sculptor Auguste Rodin. He was enthralled. So much so that he moved to Paris to write about Rodin.

Rilke ends up learning much more than he ever imagined from the sculptor. Rodin’s influence marks a pivotal phase in Rilke’s life and especially in his writing.

You see, Rilke was a lonely dude. He was constantly looking for a connection and guidance about how to live.

You see, Rilke was a lonely dude. He was constantly looking for a connection and guidance about how to live. His work up until that point, although it was popular at the time, it was also metaphysical and esoteric and overly emotional.

On this, the inaugural episode of the tiff loves words podcast, we dive into a piece by America's transcendentalist darling, Walt Whitman. To understand the emotion behind these words, we must first understand the time in which they were written and the fascinating man behind the pen.

What makes Walt Whitman’s “To a Stranger” so compelling?

To understand the emotion behind this poem, we must first understand the time in which it was written and the fascinating man behind the pen.

Poetry, like all art, is subject to interpretation. What may be a masterpiece to you, could be unintelligible to another person. As lovers and collectors of art in all forms — music, canvas, writing, street graffiti, the cinema — we accept this unspoken rule.

However, how often do we consider what the artist thought and felt? How important is context to our understanding or admiration of a piece of art?

Walt Whitman was born in the 19th century during the Second Great Awakening. It was a time of great social change in the United States. Every day life was infused with revolutionary spirit, from the collapsing of empires and the birth of a nation to religious transformation and rapid industralization.

America had just declared independence in 1776 and doing its best to shake off colonial influence. In 1789, the country elected its first president and introduced the Bill of Rights. At the time, New York was the center of government activity and the founding fathers were more like folk heroes than politicians. It’s no surprise that Whitman’s father named three of his sons after these heroes: George Washington, Andrew Jackson, and Thomas Jefferson.

Whitman was born on Long Island in 1819. He was the second of eight children and shortly after his birth, his family moved to Brooklyn. Whitman’s family was extremely poor and he describes his childhood as “restless and unhappy.”

Library of Congress, 1854

At the age of 11, Whitman stopped going to school and got a job to help support his family. He started working in newspapers, which undoubtedly sparked his love of writing. When he was 16, Whitman submitted a few poems to a newspaper. Then, in his early 20s, he tries his hand at teaching and running his own weekly newspaper, the Long-Islander. Neither of these endeavors work out, so he returns to working at at papers and submitting the occasional piece of writing.

Whitman starts building a reputation for writing after he publishes serialized fiction pieces in well-known newspapers. Then, in his late 30s, he self-publishes the first edition of Leaves of Grass. The first edition has a very limited run and minimal reception. However, poet Ralph Waldo Emerson gets his hands on a copy and loves it. He writes to Whitman and the two start a friendship. Emerson’s appreciation of his work helps push Whitman and Leaves of Grass into greater fame.

Not everyone enjoyed Leaves of Grass at the time, however. Some critics found it “trashy” and “profane.” But it gained Whitman the admiration and friendship of several more writers, including Henry David Thoreau and Amos Bronson Alcott.

Whitman, Emerson, Thoreau, Alcott, and others were giants in the transcendentalist movement. Often called the Transcendental Club, these writers focused on spirituality and the connection between body, soul, and the earth. They pushed boundaries. They questioned polite, traditional ideals.

Whitman especially was seen as crude because his writing so often celebrated and explored the human body and its link to nature. He was into indulgence, self love, personal satisfaction, and honest reflection.

Later in life, Whitman was deeply affected by the Civil War. He volunteered in hospitals, tending to wounded soldiers. He saw first hand the chaos and destruction of war. But, in getting to know these soldiers, he also saw the side of war that is fragility, tenderness, humor, and grace. He sat with them, held their hands, hugged them — whatever comfort and