Thanks Mera: I was not referring to fighting cravings when I mentioned reaching out to others suffering from depression. You said you were depressed and I was trying to help you deal with that. I am sorry that you say you have low self esteem. I often had low self esteem when I was drinking and I was ashamed of that. I realized I had an humiliating addiction. In my heart I had low self esteem. Inwardly I realized that I had to quit or lose everything: happiness, family, job, be hopelessly lonely. Somehow, something led me to reach my bottom. I went to a rehab for 28 days, with follow up after that and have not had a drink since. Thirty years.
As to the poet, Shelley, I often think of him, my sister's primary interest. She wrote her doctoral dissertation on him before she died in 1968. I admire Shelley, but admire Keats even more. I have accumulated a collection of first editions of these and other early 19th Century poets and literary figures from the 18th Century, all in my sister's memory. My favorites from the 18th Century are Thomas Gray's Church Yard Elegy and the work of Dr. Johnson and Boswell, his biographer. (I have named my dog Boswell). Dr. Johnson, such a good, kind man, was often depressed (He called it the "Black Dog") He feared that he might be sent to Hell, Eventually he died serenely. I am confident that he is now in Heaven and hope that someday I shall meet him there.
Fondly, always your friend,
Bill.