Poetic Obituaries: Like other politicians of his generation,

but unlike many of the career politicians that make up today's Commons, Mr. [Michael] Foot had a genuine hinterland, an interest in life beyond narrow Westminster politics, and especially literature and poetry.

After an election defeat in 1951, he considered devoting himself to letters full time, writing a celebrated work on his hero, Jonathan Swift; his introduction to the Penguin edition of Gulliver's Travels is known to generations of students.

In later life, he devoted himself to poetry. His favourites were the romantics, Shelley, Keats and Byron, their idealised vision of a new, better, brighter world chiming with his own.

from Telegraph: Michael Foot, the last true socialist Labour leader dies
also The Guardian: Labour's lost loves: art and poetry

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