Welcome to the world of Thom Gunn, a celebrated British poet known for his insightful observations on life, love, and the human condition. With a distinctive voice and an unwavering commitment to exploring the complexities of existence, Gunn’s works resonate with readers across generations. Born in 1929, Gunn’s poetic journey spanned decades, marked by a profound exploration of themes ranging from desire and identity to mortality and the passage of time.
Throughout his career, Thom Gunn’s poetry captured the essence of the human experience with remarkable clarity and depth. His keen eye for detail and his ability to infuse ordinary moments with profound meaning have solidified his place as one of the most revered poets of the 20th century. Gunn’s work often reflects his own experiences, from his upbringing in England to his later years spent living in California, offering readers a glimpse into the inner workings of a complex and introspective mind.
Below, you’ll find a collection of Thom Gunn quotes that encapsulate the essence of his poetic vision and offer timeless insights into the human condition. Whether you’re seeking inspiration, reflection, or simply a deeper understanding of life’s intricacies, these quotes are sure to resonate and provoke thought.
I haven’t written anything in four years. I’m sort of dried up. Thom Gunn
As humans we look at things and think about what we’ve looked at. We treasure it in a kind of private art gallery. Thom Gunn
I think most men, heterosexual and homosexual, enjoy being considered sexual objects. Thom Gunn
I deliberately wrote a poem in my last book where I was suggesting that there are other passions as great as or more important than the passion of sex. Thom Gunn
I admired what my students were writing, but I think their improvement doesn’t directly result from me but from being in a class, being with each other. Thom Gunn
I don’t know how to sit outside myself and test against a hypothetical self who stayed home. Thom Gunn
I deliberately decided to write a kind of guide to leather bars for straight people, for people not into leather, so that people could see what it was all about. Thom Gunn
When I was an undergraduate I had very badly annotated editions of Shakespeare’s sonnets, all of which left out the important fact that will has a sexual sense in Shakespeare’s sonnets. Thom Gunn
When I first started teaching at Berkeley in 1958, I could not announce that I was gay to anybody, though probably quite a few of my fellow teachers knew. Thom Gunn
We control the content of our dreams. Thom Gunn
I had assumed that I would age with all my friends growing old around me, dying off very gradually one by one. And here was a plague that cut them off so early. Thom Gunn
I was at a benefit for some imprisoned students in the ’60s at San Francisco State, and there were lots of poets reading for the benefit: one was Elizabeth Bishop. Thom Gunn
My old teacher’s definition of poetry is an attempt to understand. Thom Gunn
I work best in rhyme and meter. I was most confident of myself in that way. Thom Gunn
We learned in the university to consider Wordsworth and Keats as Romantics. They were only a generation apart, but Wordsworth didn’t even read Keats’s book when he gave him a copy. Thom Gunn
I don’t think of sex as a self-destructive impulse. Thom Gunn
Deep feeling doesn’t make for good poetry. A way with language would be a bit of help. Thom Gunn
I try not to observe myself in the process of composing a poem because I don’t want to come up with a formula, which I would then be unscrupulous in using. Thom Gunn
We tend to put poems into factions. And it restricts our reading. Thom Gunn
Many of my poems are not sexual. Thom Gunn
It was difficult being a teacher and out of the closet in the ’50s. By the time I retired, the English department was proud of having a gay poet of a certain minor fame. It was a very satisfactory change! Thom Gunn
I notice that students, particularly for gay students, it’s too easy to write about my last trick or something. It’s not very interesting to the reader. Thom Gunn
There have been two popular subjects for poetry in the last few decades: the Vietnam War and AIDS, about both of which almost all of us have felt deeply. Thom Gunn
Ginsberg’s Collected Poems contains a wonderful poem about making it with Neal Cassady. Thom Gunn
When I first started to write, I was aware of being queer, but I didn’t write about it. Queer poems would probably not have been accepted by the editors I sent them to. Thom Gunn
I was much influenced by Jean-Paul Sartre. Thom Gunn
While I don’t satisfy my curiosity about the way I work, I’m terribly curious about the way other poets work. But I would think that’s true about many of us. Thom Gunn
