If you ever are lucky enough to hear Alan Bennet's Poetry in Motion series about major poets - there is this gem about Louis Macniece - the Ulster poet, and Ake's comment just calls it to mind.

In that wonderful earnest Yorkshire voice, Bennet says something to the effect....Macneice was lot more sensible than Auden and Isherwood and all those other writers of the 1930's. He never made a fool of hinmself over boys, or daft religions, or even dafter politics.
But y'know, if y'never go off the deep end about anything. Y'do tend never to make much of a splash......