New book reveals one British poet shot another British poet in the foot...just because.

Who's to say that poets are a bunch of milquetoasts who have no personality, only to sit around ruminating about abstraction and iambic pentameter?

Oh--you think they're crazy? Okay then. You're right.

A new book reveals that famed British poet and autobiographer Laurie Lee once became so incensed with a fellow poet--Paul Potts--that he grabbed an airgun and shot him in the foot. Potts, originally from Canada, but living in Scotland, had wandered into a shop where Lee worked during World War II. "He caused me no offence," Lee wrote, "but thinking there were too many poets around, I took a shot at him one day with an airgun." Potts didn't take kindly to it, surprisingly. "The pellet hit him in the foot," Lee continues. "He leapt in the air, turned round and berated some innocent old woman behind him, and left immediately for the Hebrides."

Sounds like some sensible, good old-fashion fun!

Lee encountered many poets in his day, including the famed Welsh--and drunk--poet, Dylan Thomas. Writes Lee: "Halfway through the morning, I'd see Dylan Thomas, like a plump, furry little mole, pop up from his basement opposite and paddling off to the pub."

Alluding that Thomas was a lush is one thing--but calling him a furry little mole is just low.

"If we met in the street we didn't speak, but nodded," continues Lee. "I was teetotal in those days, and certain lines were drawn."

Nodding? There's a solid chance Thomas was just trying to stop the world from spinning.