If we take it as read....

[Erthona]

Billy - Ray,

Generally a writer has a lot of stuff out there that you wouldn't think to look for. Most poets have generally tried their hand at poetic criticism, if not some treatise on their philosophy of poetry. There are generally a number of articles and talks/lectures.

Billy, here is a very partial listing Hesse's works he wrote for his Nobel Prize:

"the stories Knulp (1915), Demian (1919), Siddhartha (1922), Der Steppenwolf (1927) [Steppenwolf], Narziss und Goldmund. (1930), Die Morgenlandfahrt (1932) [The Journey to the East], and Das Glasperlenspiel (1943) [Magister Ludi]. The volume Gedenkblätter (1937, enlarged ed. 1962) [Reminiscences] contains a good many autobiographical things. My essays on political topics have recently been published in Zürich under the title Krieg und Frieden (1946) [War and Peace]."

He also wrote his autobiography, as well as an edition of his collected poems; a novel "Peter Camenzind" and " Glasperlenspiel (1943) [Magister Ludi], a novel in two volumes."

For a more complete listing go to http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/l...-bibl.html

Keeping in mind that he wrote mostly in German, and not everything has been translated.

Mark,

I can churn out Hallmark verse,
and sometimes, something even worse,
when there's some pressing need
and money to supply my greed
(My ego, of course, you need not feed!).


Leannjolina,

"I'd dispute the Bard, I'm afraid... at least 153 of the sonnets shouldn't be bothered with"

Oh well, I hardly consider his sonnets, in that respect he probably does follow the norm. I was thinking more of his plays, which are after all, generally poems in the form of a play.

However, I think Sir Philip was near his equal in the sonnet form, although a tad less coy , but then Sidney was not pretending to be gay. Shakespeare was quite adapt at writing at or for a particular audience, I see no reason why his poems would be any different, or that he might have divided those audiences into groups based on a particular idiom. Anyone who can think up the device he does in "12th Night", where you have a young man playing the part of a young woman (Viola), who is a girl, pretending to be a man. In other words, he plays himself...well mostly. If Shakespeare could fabricate such a wonderfully twisted piece of satire condemning the sensibilities of a male dominated society ruled by a Queen that would not allow women to be actors, I think one can see him extending such swipes into his poetry. You can see him do the same flip-flop in any number of his comedies, where the woman is obviously at least the equal of a man intellectually, if not his superior. If one were to suspect Shakespeare of anything, it would be of being a woman. However, a notable fact about genius, is that it quickly notices any inequalities, for it rapidly sees through the weak arguments that justify such inequalities, and being aware of such, it is obligated to at least spread the word. Should you wish to make the mistake of equating a gay man, with a straight woman, then you can dance with garters crossed, however, I shall not provide the music for your very unwoman-like posturing! And remember, if you want your money returned to you, make sure you have the brother and not the sister.

After all, in terms of being a woman in a man's world, ""Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust into them."



Dale