Poet Probes States of Mind

Standing before a crowd of nearly 200 and donning a pair of sunglasses in an already dark room, Gwyneth Lewis—the first National Poet of Wales—belied notions of the tortured poet: in writing good poetry, one must be in a healthy state of mind.

Lewis, known for her collection of poetry “Zero Gravity,” spoke on behalf of the Radcliffe Institute during a lecture entitled “The Health of Poetry,” this year’s Julie S. Phelps Annual Lecture in the Art and the Humanities.

Throughout the talk, Lewis explored the association between sadness and poetry.

“What distinguishes poets from the rest of society is that they offer themselves to a state of mind that usually only monks do,” said Lewis, who is the Mildred Londa Weisman Fellow at the Radcliffe Institute this year. “The poet’s value to society lies in her resilience in the face of dread and her ability to develop something controlled and forceful out of her experiences with that dread.”

Lewis also asserted that the writer in search of truth “is like a member of the special forces, who goes into enemy territory to carry out existential maneuvers.”

Lewis discussed how her own personal bouts of depression shaped her poetry.

She pointed to “A Hospital Odyssey,” the epic poem that she is working on for her Institute project, as an investigation of the difficult territories into which writers sometimes venture.

The epic is based on her experiences as a wife whose spouse was diagnosed with cancer. While caring for her husband, Leighton, in a Wales hospital, Lewis spent long periods of time taking in both the details of her environment and the nature of a period of potential loss.

“A Hospital Odyssey” reads like a traditional epic, albeit with a modern bent: in meter, straightforward, and descriptive of action.

She wrote, “Vials of blood were being analyzed next door. A robot shook them, thick as mud.”

Although Lewis described poetry as an avenue through which to explore unsettling life situations, she maintained that poetry should not be used to cure depression.

“Depression is a serious medical problem, and if you have it, you should go straight to the doctor,” she said. “I believe that writers have to be happy and well in order to write.”

Dean of the Radcliffe Institute Barbara J. Grosz described Lewis’s work as embodying “so clearly the artistic and humanistic pursuit that this lectureship was established to honor.”