JACK LONDON, THE SOCIALIST DREAM OF A YOUNG POET.

Jack London began writing poetry in May 1897. From then on, the lyrical process, in the form of odd, single lines, stanzas and complete poems, would be present throughout his career as a novelist, essayist and short-story writer. His most ambitiously prolific period was between 1897 and 1899, and by the age of twenty-three he had already composed and published most of his poems. London’s incursion into poetry was not fortuitous, but instead was a deliberate, personal decision to enter what he hoped would be a lucrative profession. This began in May 1897, with the poem “Effusion”, which launched what was to be a short but vibrant poetic career. London’s poetry is replete with a wide variety of issues and captures the most intimate and existential expression of a young man who aspired to make poetry the literary and vocational tool with which to become a crucial figure in the promising socialist movement of the fin de siècle.