There's the tossing of the caber, wheat sheaf toss, and putting of the stone, as well as bagpipe bands, border collie herding demonstrations, and Highland dancing. Right after President Dwight Eisenhower made the announcement, the new 50-star flag was unfurled at the White House. He is best known for the play Boys in the Band , the first play to have characters that were openly gay. His first collection came out in 1961, called Nude Descending a Staircase . Though I admire poets who can dispense with such formalities, I find I need them.
Many today dismiss the sonnet and other traditional forms as drab boxes for cramming with words.
But to me the old forms are where the primitive and surprising action is. It was his nude illustrations that scandalized the Edwardians in Wilde's The Yellow Book . His latest book came out two years ago, the novel, The Story of the Night . Compensations were silence and decent fishing. Writing fiction is sheer play.