Robert James DeBurgh (Poet)

Little is known about this obscure person, the Prince of Atrocious Bad Poets, and what little there is, is shrouded in vagueness and ambiguity.

Robert James DeBurgh was born in Dundee, or it may have been Dunedin, in about 1860, or it may have been 1865, no-one is quite sure. He first came to notice in Istanbul (then Constantinople) in 1888, when he was arrested during a brawl in a coffee shop in the Sultan Ahmet district.

Following this, a collection of his atrociously bad poems was published in Cairo, under the name James Robert Burke. Despite exhaustive effort by scholars, no evidence of this has ever been found, nor does one single copy of his published Work survive. He was an occasional contributor to "The Gazette", although it is not clear which "Gazette" it was.

Camille Desjardins described his Work as "Atrociously bad", but this may have been a loss in translation, or, perhaps, a Gain...

That he was a secret agent in the service of the British Foreign Office there is some small measure of possibility, although major doubts have been expressed in this regard: the main evidence being relied on is the paltry quality of his poems and the fact he was never short of cash.

Vague as were his origins, there is no vagueness about his death. In 1903 in Budapest (or perhaps 1911 in Famagusta) Robert James DeBurgh was found strangled with a 'Cello string, although which string is uncertain, his nostrils and throat stuffed with papier mache of his unpublished Works. Contrary opinion has been expressed that it wasn't him at all.

Certain literary "critics", who shall remain nameless, claim that not all (some say MOST) of the Poetry attributed to Robert James DeBurgh (Poet), was not actually written by him but by aspiring young poets hoping to achieve fame by emulating the Work of a great Master. As "proof" of this, these critics cite the broad differences in style encompassed in the body of Work that is the legacy of R J DeBurgh (Poet).

There is, however, evidence to suggest that DeBurgh was suffering from what today would be diagnosed, and treated, as Delusional Schizophrenia.

Imagine the turmoil; Multiple Personalities, all trying to express themselves through the medium of rhyme. This is, most probably, the true explanation for the stylistic variations in the Works of Robert James DeBurgh (Poet).

Other, less charitable, members of the literary world (who shall also remain nameless), would denigrate the stylistic variations of a Genius, as the ramblings of a man driven mad by hunger, isolation and syphillis!!!! Philistines!