<S Gwynn: Other than VN, the only case that comes to mind in
which a novelist has performed the not incosiderable feat of the former and
provided the actual poetry is that of Anthony Burgess, who was, of course, as
good a poet as he was a writer of prose. There may be other examples, but
none comes to mind.>
I can add another
contender to the list: In Donald Harington's 1972 novel, Some Other Place.
The Right Place., his character Daniel Lyam Montross is provided by
Harington with 62 pages of original poetry. The poems are clever
but not very moving. Nonetheless, it's clear (at least to me) that, like
VN, Harington is writing the best poetry he can, while also keeping the tone and
style appropriate to his character Montross.