Poets Have
Short Lives?
By Syed Amir, PhD
Bethesda, MD
Do
poets, writers and composers, practitioners of
the fine arts, have a shorter lifespan than other
professionals? The question has intrigued many
literary researchers in the West for some time.
Poets and writers, after all, are credited with
a sensitive, perceptive and contemplative disposition
which predisposes them to identify and empathize
with the pain and sufferings of others. :Aristotle
is reported to have first posed the question some
four hundred years before the birth of Christ:
“Why is it that all men who excel in philosophy,
poetry or the arts are melancholic?” He
did not have the answer to his own question; neither
do we even today.
While it has been hypothesized for some time in
the West that poets die young, no systematic studies
were conducted to prove or disprove this supposition
until recently. Professor James Kaufman at the
Learning Research Institute, California State
University, San Bernardino, has now compared the
longevity of poets and writers from several regions
of the world. His findings published in 2003 in
the journal Death Studies (27: 813-821, 2003)
have stimulated much interest and initiated a
lively debate among the academic fraternity. The
journal, as the name implies, is devoted to research
that explores death rates among people pursuing
a range of professions. Recent research has also
addressed the question of whether a relationship
exists between the creative faculty and mental
instability in humans. In other words, are people
who are intellectually gifted also somewhat mentally
unstable?
Professor Kaufman studied the life histories of
approximately 2,000 poets who had lived and worked
in four different regions of the world--America,
China, Turkey and Eastern Europe. The life spans
of four types of writers--poets, fiction and non-fiction
writers, and playwrights — were compared.
Both male and female writers and poets were included
in the research. The earliest writer included
in the study had lived in the fourth century AD
in Eastern Europe, while the most recent writers
lived during the 19th and 20th centuries.
When the research data collected by Professor
Kaufman were analyzed, they led to some striking
conclusions. Poets, whether American, Chinese
or Turkish, had the shortest life, when compared
to novelists, non-fiction writers and playwrights.
These differences held across the gender lines.
Eastern Europeans showed some slight deviation
from this general rule, as playwrights, rather
than poets, from these countries experienced the
shortest lifetime. Even there, poets stood next
to playwrights in the mortality queue. American
poets lived to an average age of 66 years, shorter
than non-fiction writers who lived for 73 years.
Among all writers examined, the Chinese poets
had the shortest lives, living to an average age
of only 59 years, the non-fiction writers living
for 68 years. Turkish poets and non-fiction writers
did not show a wide divergence in their longevities;
the former living an average life of 62 years,
while the latter 67 years. Of the groups studied,
poets and playwrights seemed to live shorter lives,
poets doing slightly less well than playwrights.
Regardless of whether the differences were wide
or narrow, the trends were unmistakable--poets
lived short lives.
Dr. Kaufman’s findings did not come entirely
as a surprise to those who have followed the life
histories of Western poets. A number of European
poets in the recent centuries died young and led
tragic lives. The English poet, John Keats, died
of tuberculosis in Rome in 1821, while he was
only 26 years old. The collection of his letters
which brought him universal fame was published
in 1848, 27 years after his death. Percy Shelley,
another renowned English poet, lived and worked
in Italy during the last four years of his life.
He wrote much of his poetry while touring the
country; ultimately dying there in 1822 by drowning
in a boat wreck at the young age of 30 years.
Shelley’s close friend, collaborator and
a celebrated poet himself, Lord Byron, created
some of his best poetry while traveling in Europe
during the last few years of his life. He succumbed
to malaria in 1824; he had lived for only 36 year.
William Shakespeare, the prodigious playwright
and poet who lived during the Elizabethan era
died in 1616 when he was 52 years old, which perhaps
might be considered a normal lifespan for that
era. Of course, not all English poets died young.
Both William Wordsworth and Alfred, Lord Tennyson
who lived in eighteenth and nineteenth century
England were 90 and 83 years old, respectively,
at the time of their deaths. They undoubtedly
enjoyed a long life.
The curse of a short lifespan, filled with misery,
seems to have afflicted poets who lived in more
recent times. The tragic and early death in 1963
of the talented American poet and fiction writer
Sylvia Plath shocked many in the literary world.
Depressed and despairing of life, she committed
suicide in London when she was only 30 years old.
This was not her first attempt at taking her own
life. Although she was not well known at the time
of her death, the publication in1965 of her collection
of poems, Ariel, brought her international recognition.
In 1981, she received the Pulitzer Prize, the
highest literary award in America, for her poetry.
Ann Sexton, an accomplished American poet who
also won the Pulitzer Prize in poetry in 1967,
suffered from latent mental illness. She committed
suicide in 1974 when she was only 47 years old.
Another famous female American poet, Emily Dickinson,
who died in 1886 when she was 56-years old, pursued
a strange lifestyle. She eschewed all social contacts
after the age of 23, writing poetry in seclusion,
none of which was published during her lifetime.
A century earlier, the black American poet, Paul
Dunbar, son of a slave, gained fame and prominence
for his contributions made in areas ranging from
poetry, short stories, plays to non-fictional
prose. He lived for only 33 years. Even today,
he is much admired for his poetry, which is enjoyed
by both children and adults.
The focus of academic research conducted thus
far has been on western literary figures. To my
knowledge, no similar studies have been directed
at Urdu poets. However, a cursory examination
of the available biographic details of Urdu poets
does not support the notion that Urdu poets die
young. The most prominent poet to die recently,
Tabish Dehalvi, lived to a ripe age of 93 years.
His death was mourned and his work celebrated
internationally. From an examination of the life
spans of selected Urdu poets of the twentieth
century, Iqbal (65 years), Jigger (70 years),
Josh (84 years), Faiz (73 years) and Qateel Shifai
(82 years), it might be tentatively concluded
that Urdu poetry does not exert the same adverse
effect on longevity as western poetry. Among those
Urdu poets who died relatively young are included
Majaz Lucknowi (46 years), Parveen Shakir (42
years), Mustafa Zaidi and Ibn-e-Insha (52 years).
While a trend might be perceptible in these numbers,
any conclusions would not be valid or definitive
until a proper study could be undertake in which
the life spans of Urdu poets could be compared
with writers of prose.
Following the publication of the research article
by Dr. Kaufman, many people have speculated as
to the cause of the early demise of poets. No
single answer has emerged, although a number of
theories have been advanced. Poets are generally
emotional, introspective and excessively sensitive
people, traits that make them more vulnerable
than others to depression and mental instability.
They are prone to a pervading sense of melancholy
and despair. They ruminate excessively and also
likely to indulge in self-destructive behavior,
chasing dreams and pursuing impossible, fleeting
love affairs.
According to some estimates, poets can produce
work of great value while still in their twenties
and thirties, whereas it might take fiction writers
twice as long to produce comparable quality and
quality of literature. Much like meteors, they
blaze through the night sky, except that their
legacy is far more lasting.
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