Robert Graves

Robert Graves often claimed that true artists had to have a mixture of blood types coursing through themselves to allow inner tension to manifest itself in their art, literature, or music. Of course, Graves was not speaking of clinical blood types, but rather imaginary nationalistic blood lines. He would claim that he was the product of two exceedingly distinct and conflicting bloodlines. His father, Alfred Perceval Graves, was an inspector of schools and a minor Irish poet and balladeer whereas his British born mother, Amalie Elizabeth Ranke, was a member of a distinguished German family. The continual internal conflict between his practical and pragmatic German side and the lyrical and whimsical Irish side would be Graves' explanation