Thom Gunn, born Thomson William Gunn (29 August 1929 – 25 April 2004), was an Anglo-American poet who was praised both for his early verses in England, where he was associated with The Movement and his later poetry in America, even after moving toward a looser, free-verse style. After relocating from England to San Francisco, Gunn, who became openly gay, wrote about gay-related topics—particularly in his most famous work, The Man With Night Sweats in 1992—as well as drug use, sex, and topics related to his bohemian lifestyle. He won numerous major literary awards.
Read more about Thom Gunn: Life and Career, Work, Bibliography
Famous quotes by thom gunn:
“Much that is natural, to the will must yield.
Men manufacture both machine and soul,
And use what they imperfectly control
To dare a future from the taken routes.”
—Thom Gunn (b. 1929)
“Distorting hackneyed words in hackneyed songs
He turns revolt into a style, prolongs
The impulse to a habit of the time.”
—Thom Gunn (b. 1929)
“One by one they appear in
the darkness: a few friends, and
a few with historical
names. How late they start to shine!
but before they fade they stand
perfectly embodied,”
—Thom Gunn (b. 1929)
“the dull thunder of approximate words.”
—Thom Gunn (b. 1929)
“From this fat dungeon I could rise to skin
And human title, putting pig within.”
—Thom Gunn (b. 1929)