Graduate School

A couple years ago I applied to creative writing PhDs a few years ago and didn't get accepted. I wasn't really surprised: I bombed the GRE, had no recommenders who could speak to my teaching ability/very little teaching experience, and I have an under-par undergrad GPA. It was really just to see what the process was like, if I could go through it, and how I would cope with complete failure.
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I'm on the edge of applying again, this time for Literature. It seems like a lit phd is a lot less pressure to walk a line between tradition and innovation, which I felt was a pressure from the CW phd. Talking with the specific professor I want to work with, she was immediately interested in my ideas and really encouraging me to apply.
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I was wondering if I should get an MA in Lit first. I'm so far behind on Theory and Criticism and a little behind on older traditions of poetry and literature. I've never read Greek or Roman epics or philosophy. Never read any long fiction from the 19th century (maybe Dickinson and a Balzac novel or two). The professor and Graduate Director both suggested I mention this and offer to take more course work as a solution. I guess it's a pretty normal thing. They both said I should just apply to the PhD.
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I have felt recently that I should quit dabbling with academia. That I shouldn't have one foot in it and a finger in art and a hand in childhood education and always having my eyes on writing for money. I should just do one thing.
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The only problem I have right now: my teaching ability recommenders more or less backed out in the last six weeks. My mentor and my boss both weren't able to do observations. I guess that's more on me than them. They didn't know that it was important to me. They were doing their jobs.
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I watched that Bo Jackson documentary last night. There were three things that were impressed upon me: some people are just born with abilities (the people in the doc used the phrase 'god given' about a million times), you CAN do everything, and everything spectacular can come to an end in a banal instant.