Poets who prosed

[k-j]

Poets whose novels and short stories are as good as their poety, or who are as well-known for their prose as their poetry. Jacks of both trades.

Michael Ondaatje's the only one who springs to mind. There must be more?

[k-j]

Maybe Stevie Smith? Still much better known for her poetry, though she did write three novels which are still in print, of which I've read the first one and thought it was great.

[Nash]

I know I probably go on about him quite a bit just lately, but Raymond Carver seems an obvious choice.

[Nash]

And Thomas Hardy, much better poet though, I think his novels were very poor.

Interesting about Stevie Smith, I really like her poetry and I was thinking about trying out her novels. Anyone else read them?

[k-j]

Of course Hardy! Probably the best example so far of someone famous and enjoyed in both disciplines - although I agree with you (and with more and more folk, it seems) that the poems were a cut above the novels.

I had no idea Carver wrote poetry! Can you post or PM a short one so I can get a taste?

Novel on Yellow Paper - it's breathless and self-conscously immature, but very funny and with an utterly adorable narrator. If you like her poetry I think you'll love it.

[Ros]

Simon Armitage has written a book or two, but I don't think they got very good reviews.

[Nash]

Here are some of my favourite Raymond Carver poems:

http://writersalmanac.publicradio.org/i ... 2001/04/17

http://www.carversite.com/poems.html

There's also a couple more here, check out 'The Pipe' and 'My Crow'.

http://daisychain.typepad.com/the_poet_ ... index.html



Novel on Yellow Paper was the one I was thinking of reading, thanks for that, I'll give it a go.

[k-j]

Mmm, thanks. I like the locking oneself out one, and also the one you don't mention, Rain.

[brianedwards]

Ahh, this will be a good one to ponder on teh commute this morning . . . Margaret Atwood springs to mind . . . Sylvia Plath . . . Roberto Bolano . . . .

[k-j]

Ahh, this will be a good one to ponder on teh commute this morning . . . Margaret Atwood springs to mind . . . Sylvia Plath . . . Roberto Bolano . . . .

Plath, yes, one very famous novel but her literary career was really that of a poet. In the way that Joyce and Beckett both wrote excellent poetry but they're not thought of as poets. Larkin wrote, what, three novels? But by all accounts they're not very good.

Atwood and Bolano I didn't realise wrote poems. I've actually never read anything by Atwood. Was Bolano's stuff in the "visceral realist" tradition?

[Denis Joe]

Jose Saramago!

Brilliant Novelist I have only read his poems in Portuguese, though I don't speak the language.

[brianedwards]

Yes of course, Plath is not really remembered as a novelist, but I wasn't sure of your definitions.
Here are a couple of favourites from Atwood and Carver:

The Moment by Margaret Atwood

The moment when, after many years
of hard work and a long voyage
you stand in the centre of your room,
house, half-acre, square mile, island, country,
knowing at last how you got there,
and say, I own this,

is the same moment when the trees unloose
their soft arms from around you,
the birds take back their language,
the cliffs fissure and collapse,
the air moves back from you like a wave
and you can't breathe.

No, they whisper. You own nothing.
You were a visitor, time after time
climbing the hill, planting the flag, proclaiming.
We never belonged to you.
You never found us.
It was always the other way round.



An Afternoon by Raymond Carver

As he writes, without looking at the sea,
he feels the tip of his pen begin to tremble.
The tide is going out across the shingle.
But it isn't that. No,
it's because at that moment she chooses
to walk into the room without any clothes on.
Drowsy, not even sure where she is
for a moment. She waves the hair from her forehead.
Sits on the toilet with her eyes closed,
head down. Legs sprawled. He sees her
through the doorway. Maybe
she's remembering what happened that morning.
For after a time, she opens one eye and looks at him.
And sweetly smiles.


What about Bukowski? Of his prose I've only read Ham on Rye, but that is more autobiography isn't it?
Oscar Wilde? Only one novel, but a very famous one.

[Marc]

Interesting... I'm struggling to think of many (actually almost any) who crossover both disciplines - and yet I would have imagined there'd be plenty.

Vikram Seth - but the verse is mainly humourous as far as I'm aware. Umberto Eco - Any poetry? I imagine there should be...
Thomas Hardy - god his novels are depressing. I've just finished reading his Wessex tales. In every case he could take the story either way - happy end/sad end. But you know which way he'll choose, miserable git. And yet is there a finer poem than Drummer Hodge? Well probably, but I like it.
Dylan Thomas: but playwright/poet really. Not really great at either (though better than me).

Really it comes down to A A Milne. His convincing account of the tender relationship between a young man and his stuffed bear "The House at Pooh Corner"
and his poetry published as "When we were very young" and "Now we are 6" must rank him highly in the exalted pantheon of blah blah etc.

Or Spike Milligan. His touching novel 'Adolf Hitler - my part in his downfall' and his poetry including such memorable work as:

I must go down to the sea again,
The lonely sea and sky!
I've left my vest and pants there...
I wonder if they're dry?

[David]

Not quite the same thing, but here's a poet who paints. John Ashbery, Six O'Clock. I'd like to find a bigger image, but I can't.

http://184.73.187.38/media/photo/2010/0 ... 52_q85.jpg

[brianedwards]

Ashbery also co-authored a novel with poet James Schuyler:

A Nest of Ninnies

[benjamin]

Jorge Luis Borges. More well-known for his prose but considered himself more of a poet. I have a book of his poems in Spanish and English side by side; they're really quite good.

I love Hardy's novels.

[David]

I love Hardy's novels.

I don't seriously disagree, but ... Jude the Obscure?

[brianedwards]

I love Hardy's novels.

I don't seriously disagree, but ... Jude the Obscure?

Beat me to it David!!

[Marc]

Don't you wish it was 'Jude the Obvious' with a graphic sex scene and a car chase round Castorbridge ending with a shoot out at Stonehenge?

[Suzanne]

This is an excellently informational thread. I love it. Thanks for sharing. Suzanne

[David]

Or Spike Milligan. His touching novel 'Adolf Hitler - my part in his downfall' and his poetry including such memorable work as:

I must go down to the sea again,
The lonely sea and sky!
I've left my vest and pants there...
I wonder if they're dry?

AH - MPIHD is brilliant. Or was the last time I read it. I'm frightened to go back to it.

[k-j]

AA Milne - agreed. I've been reading his poetry recently and much of it is up there with the very best light verse. I thought as a kid, though, and still do, that the Pooh stories are somewhat overwritten.

Spike Milligan - I've read his Italian memoir and thought that was excellent. I also read his novel, Puckoon, which doesn't so much walk the line between madcap and senile as lurch uncomprehendingly across it with its pants round its ankles.

Borges, yes of course, and I think his poetry is if anything better than his prose. His prose is really that of a poet, though, I mean he doesn't really do plot does he?

[Suzanne]

which doesn't so much walk the line between madcap and senile as lurch uncomprehendingly across it with its pants round its ankles.

lol.

[delph_ambi]

Emily Bronte.

[k-j]

Emily Bronte.

Good one!