Gunn, Thom (1929-2004), was an English-born poet. Some of his work reflects his interest in the world of rebellious youth, as in the poem “The Unsettled Motorcyclist’s Vision of His Death.” Another aspect of his poetry is a concern with masculine physical action and courage, expressed in imagery that is violent and direct. Some of his verse reflects the characteristics of American Beat poetry (see Beat movement).
Many of Gunn’s poems are difficult to understand, even when they are about a straightforward subject, such as the rock star Elvis Presley:
Whether he poses or is real, no cat Dares to say: the pose held is a stance, Which, generation of the very chance It wars on, may be posture for combat
Gunn was born on Aug. 29, 1929, in Gravesend, Kent. His full name was Thomson William Gunn. He was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge University. Gunn completed his first volume of poems, Fighting Terms (1954), while still an undergraduate at Cambridge. He moved permanently to the United States in 1954 and taught at Stanford University and the University of California in Berkeley.
During the 1950’s, Gunn was identified with a group of English poets known as the Movement. These poets emphasized craftsmanship and rational intelligence and generally were anti-Romantic in their attitudes. Gunn’s earlier collections of poetry include The Sense of Movement (1957), My Sad Captains (1961), Positives (1966), and Touch (1967). In 1980, his collection Selected Poems 1950-1975 won the W. H. Smith Literary Award, a prize sponsored by a leading British book and magazine retailer. Gunn discussed his homosexuality in The Passages of Joy (1982). He wrote powerfully about AIDS in his collection The Man with Night Sweats (1992). He also produced The Occasions of Poetry: Essays in Criticism and Autobiography (1982). Gunn’s Collected Poems was published in 1994. He died on April 25, 2004. Gunn’s New Selected Poems was published in 2018, after his death.
