Thom Gunn facts for kids

Thomson William "Thom" Gunn (born August 29, 1929 – died April 25, 2004) was an English poet. He was well-known for his early poems in England, where he was part of a group called The Movement. Later, he became famous for his poetry in America, even when he started writing in a more free and open style. Gunn often wrote about his experiences after moving to San Francisco from England. He won many awards for his writing, and his best poems are known for their calm and thoughtful style.

Early Life and Education

Thom Gunn was born in Gravesend, Kent, England. Both of his parents were journalists. When he was 10 years old, his parents divorced. His mother passed away when he was a teenager. She was the one who first made him love reading. He enjoyed the works of famous writers like Christopher Marlowe, John Keats, John Milton, and Alfred, Lord Tennyson.

As a young man, he went to University College School in London. After that, he spent two years serving his country and six months living in Paris. He then studied English literature at Trinity College, Cambridge, and finished his studies in 1953. His first book of poems, Fighting Terms, was published the next year. Many critics praised it, with one saying it was a book "all serious readers of poetry need to possess."

Moving to America and New Styles

In 1954, Thom Gunn moved to the United States. He started teaching writing at Stanford University. He wanted to be close to his partner, Mike Kitay, whom he had met in college. Gunn and Kitay lived together for the rest of Gunn's life. He also taught at the University of California at Berkeley for many years.

Gunn's early poems were connected to The Movement. This group of poets focused on clear language and a calm tone. They wanted to describe the world with fresh eyes.

During the 1960s and 1970s, Gunn's poems became more daring. He enjoyed the artistic and free lifestyle in San Francisco. He started to explore modern worries using classic poetry forms. For example, he used the terza rima style, which was used by Dante:

It is despair that nothing cannot be
Flares in the mind and leaves a smoky mark
Of dread.
       Look upward. Neither firm nor free
Purposeless matter hovers in the dark.

Gunn believed that traditional poetry forms, with their rules, could actually help his creativity. He was one of the few modern poets who wrote serious poems using heroic couplets. This form was usually used for funny or short, clever poems. However, in the 1960s, he also began to try out free verse. This new style, combined with focusing on visual images, gave his work new energy. For example, his poem "Pierce Street" feels like a detailed photograph.

His shift to free verse and his move from England to America, along with other changes in his life, made many people wonder how his experiences were shaping his work. He wrote that his life showed "continuities" between America and England, and between free verse and traditional poetry.

Later Works and Recognition

In his book Jack Straw's Castle (1976), his poems explored dreams that turned into nightmares. This was partly about his own worries and partly about changes in America.

His book The Passages of Joy (1982) continued to show these connections. It included poems about London and New York. At the same time, he published The Occasions of Poetry, a collection of his essays.

Ten years later, his most famous collection, The Man With Night Sweats (1992), was published. This book mainly featured poems about the sadness of losing friends who were very sick. One critic praised the book, saying Gunn brought poetry back to important topics like life and death in a clear and memorable way. This book helped Gunn win the Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize in 1993. Even though he wrote about these difficult times, Thom Gunn himself remained healthy.

That same year, Gunn published another collection of essays called Shelf Life. He also released his large Collected Poems. One writer, David Biespiel, called it a highlight of the century's poetry. He said Gunn was a poet of "comradely love" and that compassion was a main feeling in his work. Gunn's poems blended language and emotion so well that it was hard to tell where one ended and the other began. His last book of poetry was Boss Cupid (2000).

In 2003, he received the David Cohen Prize for Literature. He also won many other awards, including the Levinson Prize, the W. H. Smith Award, and fellowships from the Guggenheim and MacArthur foundations. In 2001, he won the first Publishing Triangle's Triangle Award for Gay Poetry for Boss Cupid. After he passed away, this award was renamed the Thom Gunn Award in his honor.

Legacy

Five years after Thom Gunn's death, a new edition of his Selected Poems was published.

In 2017, Gunn was honored in San Francisco. His name was placed on bronze bootprints as part of the San Francisco South of Market Leather History Alley.

In 2020, Jack Fritscher received an award for his article about Thom Gunn.

See also

In Spanish: Thom Gunn para niños