caves”. Blake was a known prophet, seer and
visionary. His influence is ever present throughout
this shamanic “visualisation” (Harvey & Wallis,
2007). Thus we see Pachen as going from polemics
to innocence through the seams of his lucid brand
of poetry.
IX
Thom Gunn lived in Greenwich Village and
entrenched himself in all 60’s psychedelia had to
offer. In the sacred tradition of the “psychonaut”,
he engaged in polysubstance use right up until his
death by drug overdose. Influenced by William
Carlos Williams, he is known for consolidating
"The Movement" poets Donald Davie, Kingsley
Amis and Philip Larkin with the Beat generation
(Reisman, 2012). The fringes of society were his
milieu and throughout his career, unlike other
beat poets, he refused to abandon structure and
meter. As well as drug use, sex, a bohemian
lifestyle Gunn’s concern is the politics of identity
and the existential hero who takes many guises in
his work, from the solider to the motorcyclist.
Gunn’s driving obsession is human freedom in the
vein of Camus, Genet and Sartre. His
protagonist’s often face aeonian struggles of the
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