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Robert Bly

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Author

The Resume

    (December 23, 1926-November 21, 2021)
    Wrote poetry collections ‘Silence in the Snowy Fields (1962),' ‘The Light Around the Body (1967),' ‘Sleepers Joining Hands (1973),' ‘Loving a Woman in Two Worlds (1985),' ‘Morning Poems (1997)' and ‘My Sentence Was a Thousand Years of Joy (2005)'
    Wrote prose works ‘Iron John: A Book about Men (1990),' ‘The Sibling Society (1996)' and (with Marion Woodman) ‘The Maiden King (1998)'
    Founder of the Mythopoetic Men's Movement

Why he might be annoying:

    He says he was a ‘Lutheran Boy-God' when growing up.
    As a college student he disrupted fellow poet Archibald MacLeish's classes.
    He awarded the ‘Order of the Blue Toad' to writers he disliked when he edited The Fifties.
    An angry reader wrote, ‘You're nothing but a Captain Bly pissing up a drain pipe.'
    His men's movement was mocked by a Dewar's Whiskey ad that claimed ‘You don't need to beat a drum or hug a tree to be a man.'

Why he might not be annoying:

    After handing in his first essay, he was exempted from freshman English.
    He wrote 12 hours a day, six days a week (working one day a week to pay his bills) (1951-1954).
    His translations introduced many foreign poets such as Pablo Neruda to American readers.
    ‘Iron John: A Book About Men' is often wrongly thought to be misogynistic.
    The men's movement encourages men to talk openly about their feelings.
    He believes poetry that uses history and myths enriches people's lives.

Credit: Georgina


Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

Year In Review:

    In 2023, Out of 1 Votes: 100% Annoying
    In 2022, Out of 1 Votes: 0% Annoying
    In 2021, Out of 80 Votes: 47.50% Annoying
    In 2020, Out of 4 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2019, Out of 2 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2018, Out of 1 Votes: 100% Annoying
    In 2017, Out of 9 Votes: 88.89% Annoying
    In 2016, Out of 5 Votes: 60.0% Annoying
    In 2015, Out of 9 Votes: 55.56% Annoying
    In 2014, Out of 14 Votes: 64.29% Annoying
    In 2013, Out of 12 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2012, Out of 12 Votes: 58.33% Annoying
    In 2011, Out of 13 Votes: 69.23% Annoying
    In 2010, Out of 23 Votes: 60.87% Annoying
    In 2009, Out of 21 Votes: 38.10% Annoying
    In 2008, Out of 23 Votes: 82.61% Annoying
    In 2007, Out of 88 Votes: 52.27% Annoying
    In 2006, Out of 102 Votes: 59.80% Annoying