Maybe it’s that poets tend to be such tortured souls. Or maybe the constant battle for public understanding and acceptance is just too much for some. But whatever the reason, a new study makes it perfectly clear: poets die younger than other writers. “On average, a poet had a life-expectancy of only 62… compared to playwrights’ average age 63 years, novelists’ 66 years and non-fiction writers’ 68 years.”