Library - History - Our Gay and Lesbian Heritage

Sappho (612-? B.C.) was a lesbian Greek lyric poet, called by the gay scholar and philosopher Plato (see earlier installment) "the tenth Muse." She lived on the island of Lesbos, and her poetry--only fragments of which survive--surpassed that of the early lyric poets. Sappho is "the most highly regarded woman poet of Greek and Roman antiquity." The subjects of her lyric poems (her "immortal daughters") were almost exclusively women.

Anacreon (570-488 B.C.) was a gay Greek lyric poet. Anacreon wrote openly about his sexual relations with young boys.

Abu Nuwas (c. 760-815) was a gay Arabian poet. He served at the court of Harun al-Rashid, the Abbassid caliph of Baghdad, from 786 to 808. Nuwas "appears as a folklore character in The Thousand and One Nights" (the classic mid-15th Century compilation of "ancient tales from Persia, India, and Arabia"). "His poetry celebrated both the love of wine and boys, which was not widely appreciated by strict Muslims." One of his verses says it well:

	If I'm thirsty I'll say: come on, be quick, some wine
	And if I love a boy why keep silent about his name.

Muhammed Shams ud-din Hafiz (1326?-1389?) was a gay Persian poet. His particular verse form, which he brought to perfection, was the erotic ghazal, a lyric poem of six to fifteen rhymed couplets.

Michelangelo Di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni (1475-1564) was a gay Florentine painter (the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel) and sculptor ("David"). What is sometimes overlooked is that he was also an architect...and a poet. Michelangelo was a dominant force in Florence and Rome, and "exerted an unparalleled influence on the development of Western art." He "had numerous gay loves throughout his long life, especially among the young men who were the models for his work." At 66, Michelangelo fell in love with Cecchino dei Bracci, then 13; Bracci died two years later, and Michelangelo was desolated, and spent a year "writing passionate epitaphs for Bracci's tomb," such as:

	The earthy flesh, and here my bones deprived
	Of their charming face and beautiful eyes,
	Do yet attest for him how gracious I was in bed
	When he embraced, and in what the soul doth live.

Michelangelo's diaries, letters, and poems spoke unabashedly of his love for young men, and the "writings were suppressed for centuries" (his love poems to nobleman Tommaso Cavalieri were published...with the gender switched from male to female).

William Shakespeare (1564-1616) may have been gay. Shakespeare is perhaps better known for his plays than his sonnets...but it is-- according to some--his sonnets, "among the most beautiful expressions of love poetry in the English language," that make the case that the Bard was gay. Joseph Peguiney's study, Such Is My Love, makes a very convincing argument that Shakespeare wrote all 154 of his sonnets, which were "often explicitly homoerotic," to a young man with whom he was romantically involved. "A recently authenticated elegy was written for the funeral of a young Oxford student named William Peter, who was murdered during an afternoon of drinking and revelry." An excerpt:

	For when the world lies wintered in the storms
	Of fearful consummation, and lays down
	Th' unsteady change of his fantastic forms,
	Expecting ever to be overthrown;
	When the proud height of much affected sin
	Shall ripen to a head, and in that pride
	End in the miseries it did begin
	And fall amidst the glory of his tide;
	Then in a book where every work is writ
	Shall this man's actions be revealed, to show
	The gainful fruit of well-employed wit,
	Which paid to heaven the debt that it did owe.
	Here shall be reckoned up the constant faith,
	Never untrue, where once he love professed;
	Which is a miracle in men, one saith,
	Long sought though rarely found, and he is best
	Who can make friendship, in those times of change,
	Admired more for being firm than strange.

Professor Lars Engle of the University of California at Berkeley, a renowed Shakespearean scholar, said in a 1995 interview with The New York Times, "Shakespeare had what we would now think of as a homosexual attachment to the youth." Others, including W. H. Auden (see below), believe the opposite.

Richard Barnfield (1574-?) was a gay British poet. One story from classic Greek mythology involves Daphnis and Chloe, the "shepherd and his lady love;" Barnfield's "Affectionate Shepherd" (written in 1594, when he was only 20) "scandalized Renaissance England by describing in florid detail the love of Daphnis and Ganymede, just a couple of guys foolin' around." Barnfield also wrote, "If it be sin to love a lovely lad, oh, then sin I."

Katherine Philips (1631-1664) was a lesbian British poet.

Thomas Gray (1716-1771) was a gay British poet and Professor of Modern History at Cambridge. He "was known to have cultivated the Platonic friendship of handsome young men."

George Gordon, Lord Byron (1788-1824) was a gay British romantic poet. He had numerous affairs...with both males and females. For example, while in Greece in 1810, he fell in love with Nicolo Giraud, a 15-year-old Neapolitan youth. Lord Byron died after being striken with malaria while on his way to fight for Greek independence.

Walt Whitman (1819-1892) was a gay American poet. He is best known for his controversial book, Leaves of Grass, a collection of lusty, lyrical poems. Whitman was, in one sense, the first modern gay author. He was certainly the first major poet to speak with a truly American voice; "readings of his poems convey their exuberance, poignancy, and sheer power." His sources were eclectic, ranging "from Emerson and the King James Bible to opera and political oratory." Whitman had a ten-year relationship with streetcar conductor Peter Doyle.

Emily Dickinson (1830-1886) was a lesbian American poet. She wrote nearly 1800 poems, only ten of which were published during her lifetime; after her death, over 1000 were found in a bureau. Dickinson was one of the greatest 19th Century American poets.

Algernon Charles Swineburne (1837-?) was a probably gay British lyric poet. His poetry was "overly sensuous" according to critics. "He and gay painter Simeon Solomon used to chase each other naked through the poet [Dante Gabriel] Rossetti's house."

Paul Verlaine (1844-1896) was a gay French poet. Verlaine, a "volatile alcoholic," was married before his turbulent two-year love affair with Arthur Rimbaud (see below); afterward, Verlaine tried unsuccessfully to go back to his long-suffering wife, Mathilde.

Arthur Rimbaud (1854-1891) was a brilliant gay French poet. As a teenager, he lived off wealthy men who picked him up. In 1871, he sent some of his poems to Paul Verlaine (see above); the older poet was dazzled, and paid Rimbaud's way to Paris. Rimbaud and Verlaine became lovers, their behavior scandalizing others in their circle; two years later, Verlaine (drunk on absinthe) shot Rimbaud in the wrist. Rimbaud later went to Abyssinia (now Ethiopia). In 1995, a film about Rimbaud's life, Total Eclipse, was released, with Leonardo DiCaprio playing the part of Rimbaud and David Thewlis that of Verlaine. In reviewing the film, one critic said of Rimbaud, "he lived more in his 37 years on this planet than most people do in thrice that amount."

Alfred Edward (A.E.) Housman (1859-1936) was a gay British poet and classical scholar. He made "merry with a string of Venetian gondoliers supplied by his friend [gay French-born British writer] Horatio Brown, and was as well a regular patron of the male brothels in Paris."

Constantine Cavafy (1863-1933) was a gay Egyptian-born Greek poet. Cavafy is one of the better-known modern (as opposed to ancient) Greek poets. He wrote in both Greek and English, gay British writer E. M. Forster (1879-1970) having introduced Cavafy to English-speaking readers. According to his French translator, Marguerite Yourcenar, "Cavafy's poems are like Near Eastern cafes--you never see a woman in them." In 1996, Greek director Yannis Smaragdis created a (really awful) film biography, Cavafy.

Stefan George (1868-?) was a gay German poet. R. W. Fassbinder's (see previous installment) 1976 comedy Satan's Brew featured a delusional man who believed himself to be George. Both Arnold Schnberg and Anton von Webern used verses from George's poems in their songs.

Charlotte Mew (1869-1928) was a lesbian British poet. She committed suicide "after destroying almost all of her poetry," almost certainly to eliminate all record of her lesbianism. Given the high quality of her surviving work, this was a great loss to English literature.

Lord Alfred Bruce Douglas (1870-1945) was a gay British poet. He is best known for his nine-year (1891-1900) off-and-on relationship with gay Irish-born British writer Oscar Wilde (1854-1900), who said of him that he "understands me and my art, and loves both. I hope never to be separated from him." Of course, they were separated; Douglas went to France to avoid having to testify at Wilde's trials. When Wilde was released from prison, he also went to France, where their friendship resumed, continuing until Wilde's death. After Wilde's death, Lord Douglas married, but his wife later deserted him. Douglas's sonnets were published in two volumes, Excelsis (1924) and Sonnets and Lyrics (1935). His 74-line poem "Two Loves" ends:

	...'Sweet youth,
	Tell me why, sad and sighing, thou dost rove
	These pleasant realms? I pray thee speak me sooth
	What is thy name?' He said, 'My name is Love.'
	Then straight the first did turn himself to me
	And cried, 'He lieth, for his name is Shame,
	But I am Love, and I was wont to be
	Alone in this fair garden, till he came
	Unasked by night; I am true Love, I fill
	The hearts of boy and girl with mutual flame.'
	Then sighing said the other, 'Have thy will,
	I am the Love that dare not speak its name.'

Of course, that final line is now a standard phrase for homosexual love, and was even used by James Kirkup as the title of one of his poems.

Amy Lowell (1874-1925) was a lesbian American poet. She repudiated the Victorian style of poetry. According to one critic, "She added new beauty to English poetry." Lowell had a 13-year relationship with lesbian American actress Ada Russell. Many of Lowell's poems were about Russell, although the language (at least early in their relationship) was circumspect--only those "in the know" recognized the lesbian aspects of her poetry. However, Lowell's work became "much more blatantly erotic" as the relationship continued. A series of poems, "Planes of Personality: Two Speak Together," described the ongoing relationship, "including the intensely erotic poem, 'A Decade' that celebrates their tenth anniversary:"

	When you came, you were like red wine and honey,
	And the taste of you burnt my mouth with its sweetness.
	Now you are like morning bread.
	Smooth and pleasant.
	I hardly taste you at all for I know your savour,
	But I am completely nourished.

Lowell's work was frequently criticized, not because of her poetic talents, but because of her lesbianism and her habits of wearing men's shirts and smoking cigars. Her book, What's O'Clock, won a Pulitzer Prize in 1926.

Max Jacob (1876-?) was a gay French poet.

Angelina Weld Grimke (1880-1958) was a lesbian American poet, writer, critic, biographer, and teacher. Of her writings, only her poetry reveals her romantic love of women; "the majority of her poems are love poems to women or poems about grief and loss."

Sara Teasdale (1884-1933) was a lesbian American poet and author. She had a seven-year relationship with Margaret Conklin, of which she wrote "There is a quiet at the heart of love,/ And I have pierced the pain and come to peace."

Hilda Doolittle (1886-1961) was a lesbian American-born British poet and writer, known as "H.D." She had a 40-plus-year relationship with lesbian British writer "Bryher" (nee Annie Winifred Ellerman) (1894-?), despite the fact that during part of that time both were married (Bryher twice!).

Nikolai Kliuev (1887-1937) was a gay Russian poet. His lover was gay Russian novelist Nikolai Arkhipov.

Jean Cocteau (1889-1963) was a gay French poet, playwright, novelist, and designer--of postage stamps for the French government, stained-glass windows for churches, and fashions for the house of Schiaparelli. He was "probably the most versatile artist of the 20th Century." Cocteau's first book of poems, Aladdin's Lamp, was published when he was only 19. The inspiration for the collected poems in The Cape of Good Hope (1919) was a "friendship with aviator Roland Garros." One of Cocteau's mentors was the gay French writer Andre Gide (1869-1951), with whom he at one point fought for the affections of a young man, Marc Allegret (the three-sided affair became the central plot of Gide's The Counterfeiters). Later, Cocteau fell deeply in love with a 15-year-old fan of his poetry, Raymond Radiguet (1903-1923). Once Radiguet reached the age of majority, their relationship grew more intimate, and Cocteau's work grew more creative. Cocteau was devastated when Radiguet, then a poet and actor, died six years later of typhoid fever. Typically, biographies of Cocteau refer to Radiguet as simply a "protege." Cocteau also had a "love affair with the camera" and had a knack for promoting himself. "A photographer once remarked to Andre Maurois, 'If I were to take a picture of a village wedding, Jean Cocteau would appear between the bride and groom.' And he was right: Cocteau was photographed everywhere, by everyone, in all guises and poses."

Edna St. Vincent Millay (1892-1950) was a bisexual American poet.

Sergei Esenin (1895-1925) was a gay Russian poet. Karlinsky "argues that Esenin's best love poetry is that addressed to men." Biographers report that Esenin had a "legendary passionate friendship" with fellow gay Russian poet Anatoly Mariengof (1897-1962) that lasted for three years.

Federico Garcia Lorca (1898-1936) was a gay Spanish poet, playwright, and political activist. Some of his verse was used in gay Spanish filmmaker Jaime Chavarri's 1978 feature A Un Dios Desconocido (To an Unknown God). The 1997 feature film The Disappearance of Garcia Lorca documents Lorca's mysterious death.

Hart Crane (1899-1932) was a gay American poet. He has been called "a Dionysian ecstatic...a self-educated, self-tortured, self-destroyed homosexual visionary with a lavish gift of words strangled by a profusion of inchoate thought."

Langston Hughes (1902-1967) was a gay African-American poet, writer, and editor. Together with gay African-American poet and novelist Countee Cullen (1903-?), he was an important figure in the Harlem literary renaissance of the 1920s.

Christopher Isherwood (1904-1986) was an openly gay British-born naturalized American poet, novelist, and playwright. Isherwood, W. H. Auden (see below), and Stephen Spender (see below), are the three best-known gay British-born writers. During the years from 1929 to 1939, Isherwood taught and wrote in Berlin; his writings from this period were the inspiration for the musical Cabaret. Isherwood's long-term relationship with the 30-years-younger gay artist Don Bachardy caused scandal initially among his friends. The two collaborated on a dramatization of Isherwood's novel A Meeting by the River and on a book, October, which paired Isherwood's prose with Bachardy's portraits. In the latter years of his life, Isherwood became more active in the gay-rights movement.

Wystan Hugh (W. H.) Auden (1907-1973) was a gay British-born American poet and playwright. Auden's books of poems include Poems (1930); The Orators, an English Study (1932); Journey to a War (1939), which expressed his political and anti-war sentiments; Another Time (1940), which "contains lighter and more romantic verse;" and The Age of Anxiety (1947), which won the 1948 Pulitzer Prize (however, his earlier work is viewed by some critics as his best work). Auden's other awards included King George's Gold Medal for Poetry in 1937, the Bollingen Poetry Prize in 1954, and the National Medal for Literature in 1967. He had a 34-year relationship with gay poet Chester Kallman, with whom he collaborated on opera libretti. Auden also co-wrote three plays with Christopher Isherwood (see above). Auden held the Oxford chair in poetry from 1956 to 1961 (returning as an honorary fellow in 1972); he also taught, read his poems, and lectured at colleges across the United States and England, encouraging young poets. Although born in England, during his lifetime Auden lived in Germany (where he saw nazism's rise), the United States (immigrating in 1939, he became a citizen in 1946), Italy, and Austria. Oh, yes...he really did write a poem about fellatio, "A Platonic Blow."

Sir Stephen Spender (1909-1995) was a gay British poet and critic.

Robert Edward Duncan (1919-) is a gay American poet. He and gay artist Jess Collins have been together for over 30 years. "A leading poet of the San Francisco Renaissance," Duncan was the first poet "to strip to the buff during poetry readings."

Pier Paolo Pasolini (1922-1975) was mentioned last time in the profiles of gay filmmakers. Pasolini was also an essayist, screenwriter, teacher, painter, novelist...and poet.

Allen Ginsberg (1926-1997) was a gay American poet, the most important and influential of his generation. He was the poet laureate of gay love, and an elder statesmen of both American poetry and the gay movement. With fellow gay writers Jack Kerouac (1922-1969) and William S. Burroughs (1914-?), Ginsberg defined the Beat Generation. Interestingly, Walt Whitman (see above) was probably the first beatnik! Ginsberg exchanged love letters with fellow American poet Peter Orlovsky (1933-). W. H. Auden (see above) "really couldn't stand Ginsberg's poetry."

John Ashbery (1927-) is a gay American poet. In 1976, his Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror won all three major annual literary prizes (the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Critics Circle Award, and the National Book Award), the only book of poetry to be so honored. Ashbery has also won the Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize, the Feltrinelli Prize, and MacArthur and Guggenheim Fellowships.

Adrienne Rich (1929-) is a lesbian American poet. She has produced over 15 volumes of poetry. Rich won the National Book Award for Poetry in 1974, refused it as an individual, but accepted it on behalf of all women. She was named a MacArthur fellow in 1994. Rich has won the Lambda Literary Award for Lesbian Poetry twice, in 1992 and 1996.

Rod McKuen (1933-) is a gay American poet, composer/songwriter, and singer.

Audre Lorde (1934-1992) was a lesbian Caribbean-American poet. Her books include Our Dead Behind Us, The Black Unicorn, Between Ourselves, From a Land Where Other People Live, The Cancer Journals (Lorde died following a long battle with breast cancer), Sister Outsider, and The Marvelous Arithmetics of Distance. A biographical film, Litany for Survival: The Life and Work of Audre Lorde, was released in 1995.

Judy Grahn (1940-) is a lesbian American poet and activist. In 1990, she won the Lambda Literary Award for Lesbian Non-Fiction for Really Reading Gertrude Stein.

Ian Young (1945-) is a gay Canadian poet.

Gavin Geoffrey Dillard (?-) is a gay American poet, artist, author, editor, songwriter, photographer, fashion model, theatre actor, and former porn star. Dillard has published seven volumes of poetry, most recently Yellow Snow. He has also edited two volumes of gay poetry, Return of the Male Muse, with Ian Young (see above), and Between the Cracks: The Daedalus Anthology of Kinky Verse (1997), by himself. Dillard's other published work includes Sacred Passion, "an exquisitely photographed celebration of male love in its purest forms." In the Flesh, his tell-all memoir of the porn business, will be published in late 1997. Dillard currently lives on Maui and raises orchids.

Essex Hemphill (1957?-1995) was a gay African-American poet, author, editor, performance artist, and activist. His "work focused on life as an African-American gay man." He died from AIDS at age 38. Hemphill received the James Baldwin Black Quill Award posthumously.

Aiden Shaw (1966-) is a gay British poet and novelist, "who also supports himself with a career in pornography and prostitution." Oh, he sings, too.

Mutsuo Takahashi (?-) is a gay Japanese poet.

Our Gay and Lesbian Heritage by Bruce Britton - Part 5
Our Gay and Lesbian Heritage by Bruce Britton - Part 7

Library - History - Our Gay and Lesbian Heritage