Which Great Poets have written classics in other genres or Vice Versa

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So for example Ishamael Reed is a poet but also written great Novels
Odantje is a middling novelsit but has written great poetry.
so who hops genres like a 'Roo on Speed.

― anthony, Sunday, 22 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Wilde tried better than most to work in a variety of arenas, and whether or not you thought he succeeded perfectly, anyone who could come up with The Picture of Dorian Grey, The Importance of Being Earnest, "The Decay of Lying," The Ballad of Reading Gaol< /I> and much more besides showed an admirable ability to do well at whatever he turned his hand towards.
― Ned Raggett, Sunday, 22 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Once again the tags disobey me!

― Ned Raggett, Sunday, 22 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I'm repeating myself, but - Sylvia Plath!! whose prose I prefer to her poetry.

Yeats: wrote plays, fiction, tried most things.

Also, lots of major poets have written fine, or at least interesting, *critical* prose. Eliot - Pound - Heaney. Empson was maybe not a great poet, but he was a great critic.

― the pinefox, Sunday, 22 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

jewel. is there anything she CAN'T do?

― ethan, Sunday, 22 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Does Nabokov count (for fiction and poetry I mean, of course he counts for fiction and critical prose)? Unless I'm overlooking someone I just can't really think of a writer for whom I enjoy both sides (or more) of their output sufficiently equally.

― Josh, Sunday, 22 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I probably have to agree with Josh's last point (unless, Eliot & Pound's poetry + their critical prose?). But will just add: *Joyce* wrote drama, poetry, and [something else].

― the pinefox, Sunday, 22 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Yeah, I thought of him too but I don't like his poetry (that I've read). The poet-critic is, as I'm sure you know, quite an institution. I almost sort of expect poets worth their salt to be critics as well.

― Josh, Sunday, 22 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

* Thomas Hardy - not that I particularly like his poetry.

* Phillip Larkin.

* John Ashbery wrote a novel with Kenneth Koch, didn't he?

* Sam Beckett.

* Stephen Dobyns is a really grate poet, who is apparently pretty nifty in the hard-boiled detective fiction style too.

― stevie t, Sunday, 22 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

You thinking of Larkn's jazz writing or his spanking novel, Stevie?

― mark s, Sunday, 22 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Beckett might be the first answer I approve of.

Who ever talks about Ashberry's novel? Cummings wrote a novel too.

― Josh, Sunday, 22 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Yeah, Thomas Hardy - I especially like his poetry.

― D*A*V*I*D*M, Sunday, 22 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Raymond Carver wrote some great poetry. Like his short stories sparse, economical and extremely moving.

― Billy Dods, Sunday, 22 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Actually Hardy is the best answer yet. Apart from Plath, of course. (Beckett is another Major answer, BUT I think his fiction is way ahead of his drama.)

― the pinefox, Sunday, 22 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Josh is bang on the bucks re: Cummings. The Enormous Room is much better than his dodgy poesy.

Mark: I was referring to Larkin's spanking jazz mags.

More poets who have written novels: Adam Thorpe, Helen Dunmore, Lavinia Greenlaw, Glyn Maxwell. I cant comment on the quality of any of their novels, though.

― stevie t, Sunday, 22 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Spike Milligan.

― DG, Sunday, 22 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I get to workshop with Dobyns next semester (brag, brag). IAs much as I love Carver's fiction, his poetry has never done much for me. D.H. Lawrence would be another poet and fiction writer. As would Borges. And John Updike.

― bnw, Sunday, 22 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Yeah, I thought of Borges who is supposedly respected for his poetry (not my thing though).

Am I right on because the novel is good or bad, Stevie T? I've never read it, but then I like his dodgy poesy.

― Josh, Sunday, 22 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

WCW novels, Keoraucs poems, Shakepeare, Dante,

― anthony, Sunday, 22 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

William Carlos Williams wrote almost better short stories than poems.

― Sterling Clover, Monday, 23 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

WCW wrote other prose too. Shit like "Spring and All," which I really like. Don't know if it's considered GRATE or classic though.

― Josh, Monday, 23 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

White Mule.
nuff said .

― anthony, Monday, 23 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

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