Warning - Poetry Shortens Your Life

[Ivan Seeking]

Poets die young - younger than novelists, playwrights and other writers, a US researcher says.

It could be because poets are tortured and prone to self-destruction, or it could be that poets become famous young, so their early deaths are noticed, said James Kaufman of the Learning Research Institute at California State University at San Bernardino.

For the report, published in the Journal of Death Studies, Kaufman studied 1,987 dead writers from various centuries from the United States, China, Turkey and Eastern Europe. He classified the writers as fiction writers, poets, playwrights, and non-fiction writers. He did not study the causes of death.

"Among American, Chinese and Turkish writers, poets died significantly younger than non-fiction writers," Kaufman wrote in the report. "Among the entire sample, poets died younger than both fiction writers and non-fiction writers."

Because Kaufman studied some writers who lived hundreds of years ago, it is impossible to compare their average age of death to that of the general population.

"On average, poets lived 62 years, playwrights 63 years, novelists 66 years and non-fiction writers lived 68 years," Kaufman said in an interview conducted by e-mail. [continued]

http://xtramsn.co.nz/news/0,,3782-3279948,00.html

Not to be knocking great literature since I really do have a great appreciation for what I have read, but while in college I did notice that the stuff is often really depressing. I remember being depressed for days while I had to read and analyze Hemmingway’s "To Kill an Elephant".

 

[Thallium]

Is that a maniac theory or what!

 

[selfAdjoint]

Kenneth Rexroth, a critic and poet, stated years ago that "The leading cause of death among American poets of 'anthology rank' is suicide."

 

[Moonbear]

I agree it would have been better if they broke down the causes of death, at least into general categories of "natural causes" and "suicide." It does seem, from the perspective of the casual observer, that poets are more depressed and use poetry as an outlet for that depression. It also seems to me that the other categories of writers are more likely to see their works published and gaining fame in their lifetime, so would get more reward for their efforts. Even a very popular poem just doesn't get the same sort of recognition as a best-selling novel, so someone who is seriously trying to earn a living as a poet is probably going to spend life feeling pretty unappreciated...not unlike the starving artist whose paintings don't catch on as something collectors want until after the artist's death.

 

[motai]

http://xtramsn.co.nz/news/0,,3782-3279948,00.html

Not to be knocking great literature since I really do have a great appreciation for what I have read, but while in college I did notice that the stuff is often really depressing. I remember being depressed for days while I had to read and analyze Hemmingway’s "To Kill an Elephant".

True, very depressing. I remember feeling depressed for a while when I had to write a report on a poem entitled "Vergissmeinnicht".

http://www.cs.rice.edu/~ssiyer/minstrels/poems/710.html

EDIT: The author of the poem "Vergissmeinnicht", Keith Douglas, died shortly after he wrote this poem during the invasion of Normandy.

 

[Chrono]

True, very depressing. I remember feeling depressed for a while when I had to write a report on a poem entitled "Vergissmeinnicht".

I got depressed when I got my grade on my research paper on "Porpyria's Lover" by Robert Browning.

 

[Math Is Hard]

http://xtramsn.co.nz/news/0,,3782-3279948,00.html
"On average, poets lived 62 years, playwrights 63 years, novelists 66 years and non-fiction writers lived 68 years," Kaufman said in an interview conducted by e-mail."

What's the average lifespan of a physicist?

 

[Ivan Seeking]

What's the average lifespan of a physicist?

In whose frame of reference?

 

[Math Is Hard]

In whose frame of reference?

Eep! I hadn't thought of that!