THE FIGURE OF THE EXISTENTIAL OUTCASTIN THOM GUNN'S EARLYPOETRY

Thom Gunn (1929-2004), baptized Thomson William Gunn, kept moving from one poetic mould into another, rejecting to commit himself to any school. He experienced bothBritishandAmericantraditions,but he refused to be under the garment of either. Instead, he preferred to call himself an Anglo-American poet forging as such a bridge between the two trends. In addition, Gunn was fascinated by Existentialism, which urged him to employ the figure of the existential outcast thatlies at the centreofhis poetry and reflects much of his personality and attitudes towards his surroundings.