A great poet, a really great poet, is the most unpoetical of all creatures. But inferior poets are absolutely fascinating. The worse their rhymes are, the more picturesque they look. The mere fact of having published a book of second-rate sonnets makes a man quite irresistible. He lives the poetry that he cannot write. The others write the poetry that they dare not realize. – Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray
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Ernie, did I ever tell you how very irresistible I find you? And how utterly on the button you are, as always, because this is my weekend for realising that Dorian Gray is next up on my list.
My Oscar & Henry pamphlet went to print the other day, the launch is in January, and I’ll keep you posted. Wish you could come to our Oscar evening at Lemon Monkey in Feb.
Srsly, though, that “most unpoetical” remark – didn’t Keats say the same thing in his letters? I’m sure he did. Oscar’s only voicing his own dandyish anxieties, of course.