andie nachgeborenen wrote:
>
> Charles Ives, the modernist composer, was also an
> insurance man. I can't think of any poetical lawyers,
> as opposed to poets with some legal training.
Stevens did not merely have "legal training"; to begin with at least I believe his work for the insurance company was legal work. I think he is a valid instance of an attorney as poet.
> Btw,
> one theory about Shakespeare's "Lost Years" in the
> 1580s is that he apprenticed as a clerk to a lawyer.
> This is speculation based on the accurate and
> knowledgeable use of legal language in the plays.
That is a weak argument. His use of language was knowledgeable in too many fields. Someone once suggested that Homer was a medic who accompanied the Achaian hosts to Troy, he displayed such anatomical knowledge in his description of wounds. Homer of course did not compose the epics. They were composed by someone we call Homer.
Carrol
P.S. As far as I can tell from the translations, Mao was a pretty good poet. So was Ho.