#i guess. don't fucking read this anyway. 😐 i come on here to talk to myself if you read it i'll fucking step on your pinky toe. 😐👿

[buckieduckie2]

I wanna talk about a hyperfixation of mine: a little but of Queer History- W.H. Auden and gay poets

i would like to share with you a little bit of queer history, not super in depth but i want to share it with anyone whos not aware nonetheless (also i have no idea how many people know about this, so if this turns into a "oh everybody knows THAT"... hush. i dont care.

Okay, so a while ago I had to do a project on some poets asigned to me and write a short bio on them, talking about their life and career and things like that. So to get our information, our teacher had us looking in the archives and read a larger biography already written on them.... yeah.

So as I was reading this biography, i came across a part discussing his collaborators and one of the paragraphs mentioned W.H. Auden writing librettos with “Chester Kallman, an American poet and close friend who lived with him for more than 20 years," BITCH be so frrr 💀💀💀

So I read that like and immediately was like, hmm that sounds familiar 😐.... 🤨 but then I read farther into the biography and it said he had a wife and he was also super Christian so i was like... aw gUeSs hEs nOt gAy 😞

So yeah then I had to include a poem if his on the little infographic we were all making so i found one that I really, really liked called "Stop All The Clocks"

Stop All the Clocks

by W.H. Auden

Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone, Prevent the dog from barking with a juicy bone, Silence the pianos and with muffled drum Bring out the coffin, let the mourners come.

Let aeroplanes circle moaning overhead Scribbling on the sky the message He Is Dead, Put crepe bows round the white necks of the public doves, Let the traffic policemen wear black cotton gloves.

He was my North, my South, my East and West, My working week and my Sunday rest, My noon, my midnight, my talk, my song; I thought that love would last for ever: I was wrong.

The stars are not wanted now: put out every one; Pack up the moon and dismantle the sun; Pour away the ocean and sweep up the wood. For nothing now can ever come to any good.

Wow that poem is reall beautiful and really, really heartbreaking.

Yeah so I read that poem and immediately noticed the use of He/Him pronouns and thought... thats gay Soooooooo what did I do? I looked up if he was gay or not! And you know what google said? Yeah! He was!

One google search told me more about this man than an official archive with professionals 😐

W.H. Audens lifelong partner was Chester Kallman, and they translated/wrote (?) librettos together <3

Didn't you say he was super Christian tho...

Yeah, I did, and yeah, he was. But guess what? Gay people can be Christians too, and this man managed to do it in the fucking 40s till his death in '73. Albeit this came with many struggles internally, he still lived with Kallman till his death. So yeah, gay people had happy endings back then, even the religious ones :)

He also had some pretty rocking views on religion. Auden, thoughout his younger life, hadn't ever been part of any faith until a trip to Spain... we could get into that but we won't. Anyways, his pretty rocking opinion on religion? Don't force it on children. It's dumb and it brainwashes them cause they can't make the decision themselves. He probably said it better but you get my point.

Also he had a lot of kick-ass political opinions too.

Wait but didn't you say he had a wife?

Yeah but like, what gay man in the last 1084308394 centuries didnt? I mean c'mon.

Anyways so heres where things really start kicking....

W.H. Auden's wife was Erika Mann. Erika Mann was an actress from Germany, and the only reason she married W.H. Auden was so she could get an American passport.

And GUESS WHAT??? She was a lesbian.

MUAHAHAHHAA anyways.

Erika Mann also had a lover named Therese Giehse, a German actress as well who was introduced to John Hampson, an English novelist, via Auden. Hampson and Giehse both married so they could to go to the United States.

Anyways so things got more fun when I found out that Erika's brother was also gay. :DDDDD

His name was Klaus Mann, and he was an openly gay man. I don't want to get into too much detail here though because his life was tragic and there's a hole burning into my stomach because it makes me sad :((((

ANYWAYYSYSYYYYYSSSSS

So yeah! That was my "brief" little dive into W.H. Auden and his mutuals :)))))) I was literally SO greatful that I was asigned W.H. Auden when I started researching him in a little bit more depth because the poets had been assigned at random, so yeah this was really perfect :)

and BRO I LITERALLY COULD NOT IT WAS SO HILARIOUS TO ME- THE MORE AND MORE RESEARCH I DID THE MORE PEOPLE ENDED UP BEING QUEER AND IT WAS JUST SO HILARIOUS IN THE BEST WAY 😭😭😭 i was reeling i was literally so happy

ANYWAYS hope yall enjoyed that <333 hopefully this wasnt all TOO commonly known stuff i hope i taught at least one person something but either way- if you got this far THANKS FOR LISTENING TO ME TALK ABOUT THIS I REALLY LOVE TALKING ABOUT THIS ITS TOTALLY A HYPERFIXATION OF MINE

and agh~ can we talk about the amount of queerplatonic and mlm wlw solididarity? i love.

also disclaimer if anyone wants to call me out on my bullshit: yeah Kallman ended his sexual relationship with Auden in 1941 cause of like... a problem with mutual fidelity. they still lived together till death tho and Auden described their relationship as a marriage so shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh i dont wanna go in depth rn 😡

also anyone please tell me if i got something horribly wrong dont be afraid to burst my bubble with the sweet smell of truth

Below the cut: photos of W.H. Auden Chester Kallman

W.H. Auden

W.H. Auden with Chester Kallman

@l0v3c0r3e you better read this or istg 👹

[antiherotheantisocial]