The "Gay Apprentice": Ashbery, Aun, and a Portra of the Artist as a Young Cric on JSTOR

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The sexual act scribed by the poem microspic physlogil tail is "Platonic" only the popular sense that is perfect of s 's sce bee mon nsens that, y, the openly gay wrer did e his skills to whip up an erotic medatn on Afternoon Delight. He never wrote about his homosexualy except for a few poems which he did not publicly acknowledge, but he was not closeted his life outsi the public sphere. The nuptials were nothg more than a formaly, sce Aun was gay and unted as his real marriage his long relatnship wh the Amerin poet Chter Kallman.

For a time he believed that gratifyg his homosexual sir would enable him to outgrow them, but after nearly 10 months Berl, durg which he traveled some Germany and returned twice briefly to England, his new eedom had produced moments of happs but no permanent transformatn. He missed the Berl life, the Cosy Corner (a gay bar he and Isherwood equented), and probably a boy lled Willi wh whom he had apparently begun a new affair. He had rejected promiscuy, yet guilt about his homosexualy ntually drove him search of new lovers.

He also observed the journal that the torment of his homosexualy was, for him, one of s attractns; he associated mutual love wh spair.

Still, after he had spent ls than a year altogether Berl, Aun's feelg for the dialect and the sexy slang of the gay bars is imprsive; Mr. Edward Heath was told poet should be led out over ‘utterly revoltg’ vers about gay sex and Aun’s cisn to be an Amerin cizen.

He was one of the most acplished poets of the 20th century, but WH Aun was emed unsuable for the role of poet lreate after wrg a “filthy” pornographic poem that would “brg disgrace” on the Heath, the Conservative prime mister, was told 1972 that Aun - prevly scribed by officials as “probably the bt poet” alive - had wrten “utterly revoltg” vers about gay sex, meang that together wh his cisn to bee an Amerin cizen he should be led out.