dumbfoundry

The comedian Dave Allen (1936-2005) was a nephew of Irish poet and novelist Katherine Tynan (1861-1931), who was a friend of Yeats:

In 1886, his friend and fellow poet Katherine Tynan brought him to his first seance, an experience that he found unnerving, but one which sparked his lifelong interest in the occult and the supernatural.

Tynan

first met W. B. Yeats (‘all dreams and gentleness’), June 1885, in connection with C. H. Oldham’s Dublin University Review; advised by him in early correspondence to make a speciality of her Irish Catholicism; a first book, Louise de la Valliere and Other Poems (1885), heavily influenced by Christina Rossetti (and called by Yeats ‘too full of English influence to be quite Irish’ in his review of her Ballads and Lyrics in the Evening Herald during Jan. 1892); ... her suggestion to Yeats that he should try an Irish subject resulted in Wanderings of Oisin; ... life-long correspondent with W. B. Yeats, who described her as ‘very plain’ though always affectionate towards her;

Twenty One Poems by Katharine Tynan selected by Yeats.

What do you think about comedy and poetry? Do they come from the same odd bits of the brain?

This entry was posted by eeksypeeksy on Saturday, March 12, 2005 at 10:55 PM. You can skip to the end and leave a response.