The Things You Can Read: National Poetry Month Ends: The Fascinating, Handwritten Poems of Famous Authors

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Tuesday, April 30, 2013

National Poetry Month Ends: The Fascinating, Handwritten Poems of Famous Authors

Flavorwire shared The Fascinating, Handwritten Poems of Famous Authors. It is an amazing assortment of handwritten poems from the "Who's Who of literature." Below you will find the poem we found most interesting. Having just read F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby and Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald by Therese Fowler this one spoke volumes. Check out all ten and let us know which is your favorite here at The Things You Can Read.

F. Scott Fitzgerald, “Addenda (Seven Years Later)”

“What shall I do with this bundle of stuff

Mass of ingredients, handful of grist

Tenderest evidence, thumb-print of lust.”

It’s unclear why the Great Gatsby author was penning an 8-year-old poems mentioning lust and necking, but F. Scott Fizgerald did just that.Addenda (Seven Years Later) was written for actress Helen Hayes’ daughter Mary MacArthur. Fitzgerald spent time at the family’s New York home and wrote the verse on the reverse side of another poem he composed for Mary when she was an infant (during the time he wroteTender is the Night). He died several years after Addenda was written, beset with illness from a life of alcoholism. Mary died at 19 from polio.