Daniel Bailey is most notably known for his first published collection of poems, “The Drunk Sonnets”, which was composed of 53 sonnets that Bailey wrote while completely intoxicated. In truth, it can’t be proven that he was actually plastered, but he was at least using his best “drunkface”. The Drunk Sonnets were a part of a small genre of poetry affectionately called Drunk Poetry, and all of the authors in this particular genre happened to be restricted to Daniel Bailey’s immediate friend circle. This concept of Drunk Poetry has often been considered in the same category as the hipster ironists’ Flarf poetry. Admittedly, The Dunk Sonnets do share some similarities with these parodies of poetry, including the fact that all of the sonnets
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This contributes to the mocking of this form of poetry and its inclusion with Flarf’s ironic spin on writing that people are trying to interpret as legitimate poetry. Flarf was actually born when poet Gary Sullivan submitted the worst poem he could write to a contest held by an organization that had scammed his grandfather. This “movement” of Flarf omits the possibility of legitimacy, which restricts any interpretative potential. This makes Flarf something short of poetry, and is why I strongly argue the fact that Drunk Poetry is so much more than a drunk rambling with no meaning. Incomparable to this lack of seriousness, The Drunk Sonnets contain the utmost sincerity which is easily confirmed by nearly every clique in history who has had to deal with their “honest-drunk” friend who mysteriously loses the ability to filter their devastatingly honest opinions at the bottom of the fourth bottle. The most obvious argument to be made for drunk poetry over Flarf is the relatability of Bailey versus the incoherent randomness of Flarf. We can all relate to a beyond drunk friend bouncing from saying absolutely ridiculous things, to describing the epiphany that they will almost certainly forget by morning, and then back to laughing at themselves and explaining that they are simply hammered. However, Bailey’s sonnets go much deeper than these obvious differences that are almost immediately caught by the
This contributes to the mocking of this form of poetry and its inclusion with Flarf’s ironic spin on writing that people are trying to interpret as legitimate poetry. Flarf was actually born when poet Gary Sullivan submitted the worst poem he could write to a contest held by an organization that had scammed his grandfather. This “movement” of Flarf omits the possibility of legitimacy, which restricts any interpretative potential. This makes Flarf something short of poetry, and is why I strongly argue the fact that Drunk Poetry is so much more than a drunk rambling with no meaning. Incomparable to this lack of seriousness, The Drunk Sonnets contain the utmost sincerity which is easily confirmed by nearly every clique in history who has had to deal with their “honest-drunk” friend who mysteriously loses the ability to filter their devastatingly honest opinions at the bottom of the fourth bottle. The most obvious argument to be made for drunk poetry over Flarf is the relatability of Bailey versus the incoherent randomness of Flarf. We can all relate to a beyond drunk friend bouncing from saying absolutely ridiculous things, to describing the epiphany that they will almost certainly forget by morning, and then back to laughing at themselves and explaining that they are simply hammered. However, Bailey’s sonnets go much deeper than these obvious differences that are almost immediately caught by the