Robert Traill Spence Lowell IV (; March 1, 1917 – September 12, 1977) was an American poet. He was born into a

Boston Brahmin The Boston Brahmins or Boston elite are members of Boston's traditional upper class. They are often associated with Harvard University; Anglicanism; and traditional Anglo-American customs and clothing. Descendants of the earliest English coloni ...

family that could trace its origins back to the ''

Mayflower ''Mayflower'' was an English ship that transported a group of English families, known today as the Pilgrims, from England to the New World in 1620. After a grueling 10 weeks at sea, ''Mayflower'', with 102 passengers and a crew of about 30, r ...

''. His family, past and present, were important subjects in his poetry. Growing up in

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

also informed his poems, which were frequently set in Boston and the New England region. The literary scholar Paula Hayes believes that Lowell mythologized New England, particularly in his early work. Lowell stated, "The poets who most directly influenced me ... were

Allen Tate John Orley Allen Tate (November 19, 1899 – February 9, 1979), known professionally as Allen Tate, was an American poet, essayist, social commentator, and poet laureate from 1943 to 1944. Life Early years Tate was born near Winchester, ...

Elizabeth Bishop Elizabeth Bishop (February 8, 1911 – October 6, 1979) was an American poet and short-story writer. She was Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress from 1949 to 1950, the Pulitzer Prize winner for Poetry in 1956, the National Book Awar ...

, and

William Carlos Williams William Carlos Williams (September 17, 1883 – March 4, 1963) was an American poet, writer, and physician closely associated with modernism and imagism. In addition to his writing, Williams had a long career as a physician practicing both pedia ...

. An unlikely combination! ... but you can see that Bishop is a sort of bridge between Tate's formalism and Williams's informal art." Lowell wrote in both formal, metered verse as well as free verse; his verse in some poems from ''Life Studies'' and ''Notebook'' fell somewhere in between metered and free verse. After the publication of his 1959 book ''

Life Studies ''Life Studies'' is the fourth book of poems by Robert Lowell. Most critics (including Helen Vendler, Steven Gould Axelrod, Adam Kirsch, and others) consider it one of Lowell's most important books, and the Academy of American Poets named it ...

'', which won the 1960

National Book Award The National Book Awards are a set of annual U.S. literary awards. At the final National Book Awards Ceremony every November, the National Book Foundation presents the National Book Awards and two lifetime achievement awards to authors. The Nat ...

and "featured a new emphasis on intense, uninhibited discussion of personal, family, and psychological struggles," he was considered an important part of the confessional poetry movement."Robert Lowell (1917-1977)." ''Contemporary Literary Criticism''. Ed. Jeffrey W. Hunter. Vol. 124. Detroit: Gale Group, 2000. p 251. However, much of Lowell's work, which often combined the public with the personal, did not conform to a typical "confessional poetry" model. Instead, Lowell worked in a number of distinctive stylistic modes and forms over the course of his career. He was appointed the sixth Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress, where he served from 1947 until 1948. In addition to winning the National Book Award, he won the

Pulitzer Prize for Poetry The Pulitzer Prize for Poetry is one of the seven American Pulitzer Prizes awarded annually for Letters, Drama, and Music. It was first presented in 1922, and is given for a distinguished volume of original verse by an American author, published ...

in 1947 and 1974, the

Paul Mariani Paul Mariani (born 1940 in New York City) is an American poet and is University Professor Emeritus at Boston College. Life Paul Mariani is the University Professor Emeritus at Boston College, specializing in Modern American and British Poetry, r ...

called him "the poet-historian of our time" and "the last of merica'sinfluential public poets."Mariani, Paul. Lost Puritan: A Life of Robert Lowell. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1996. 10.

Life

Family history

Lowell was born to

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...

Cmdr. Robert Traill Spence Lowell III and Charlotte Winslow in

, Massachusetts. The Lowells were a

family that included poets

Amy Lowell Amy Lawrence Lowell (February 9, 1874 – May 12, 1925) was an American poet of the imagist school, which promoted a return to classical values. She posthumously won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1926. Life Amy Lowell was born on Febru ...

and

James Russell Lowell James Russell Lowell (; February 22, 1819 – August 12, 1891) was an American Romantic poet, critic, editor, and diplomat. He is associated with the fireside poets, a group of New England writers who were among the first American poets that ...

; clergymen Charles Russell Lowell Sr. and Robert Traill Spence Lowell;

Civil War A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies ...

general and war hero

Charles Russell Lowell Charles Russell Lowell III (January 2, 1835 – October 20, 1864) was a railroad executive, foundryman, and General in the Union Army during the American Civil War. He was mortally wounded at the Battle of Cedar Creek and was mourned by a number ...

III (about whom Lowell wrote his poem "Charles Russell Lowell: 1835-1864"); and the Federal Judge

John Lowell John Lowell (June 17, 1743 – May 6, 1802) was a delegate to the Congress of the Confederation, a Judge of the Court of Appeals in Cases of Capture under the Articles of Confederation, a United States district judge of the United States Distr ...

. His mother was a descendant of

William Samuel Johnson William Samuel Johnson (October 7, 1727 – November 14, 1819) was an American Founding Father and statesman. Before the Revolutionary War, he served as a militia lieutenant before being relieved following his rejection of his election to the Fi ...

, a signer of the United States Constitution; Jonathan Edwards, the

Calvinist Calvinism (also called the Reformed Tradition, Reformed Protestantism, Reformed Christianity, or simply Reformed) is a major branch of Protestantism that follows the theological tradition and forms of Christian practice set down by John Ca ...

theologian (about whom Lowell wrote the poems "Mr. Edwards and the Spider," "Jonathan Edwards in Western Massachusetts," "After the Surprising Conversions," and "The Worst Sinner");

Anne Hutchinson Anne Hutchinson (née Marbury; July 1591 – August 1643) was a Puritan spiritual advisor, religious reformer, and an important participant in the Antinomian Controversy which shook the infant Massachusetts Bay Colony from 1636 to 1638. Her ...

, the

Puritan The Puritans were English Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries who sought to purify the Church of England of Roman Catholic practices, maintaining that the Church of England had not been fully reformed and should become more Protestant. ...

preacher and healer; Robert Livingston (who was also an ancestor on Lowell's paternal side);

Thomas Dudley Thomas Dudley (12 October 157631 July 1653) was a New England colonial magistrate who served several terms as governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Dudley was the chief founder of Newtowne, later Cambridge, Massachusetts, and built the tow ...

, the second governor of Massachusetts; and ''

'' passengers James Chilton and his daughter

Mary Chilton Mary Chilton (May 31, 1607 – May 16,1679) was a Pilgrim Fathers, Pilgrim and purportedly the first European woman to step ashore at Plymouth, Massachusetts. Biography Mary Chilton was baptized on May 31, 1607 in Sandwich, Kent, England and wa ...

. Lowell's parents share a common descent from

Philip Livingston Philip Livingston (January 15, 1716 – June 12, 1778) was an American merchant and statesman from New York City. He represented New York at the October 1774 First Continental Congress, where he favored imposing economic sanctions upon Great B ...

, the son of Robert Livingston, and were sixth cousins. As well as a family history steeped in

Protestantism Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century against what its followers perceived to b ...

, Lowell had notable nun ancestors on both sides of his family,Wikipedia: Notes on Robert Lowell's Family".
''Nicholas Jenkins: Arcade''. May 07, 2010. Accessed November 16, 2012 which he discusses in Part II ("91 Revere Street") of ''

''. On his father's side, Lowell was the great-great-grandson of Maj. Mordecai Myers (father of Theodorus Bailey Myers, Lowell's great-granduncle), a soldier in the

War of 1812 The War of 1812 (18 June 1812 – 17 February 1815) was fought by the United States, United States of America and its Indigenous peoples of the Americas, indigenous allies against the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, United Kingdom ...

and later mayor of Kinderhook and

Schenectady Schenectady () is a city in Schenectady County, New York, United States, of which it is the county seat. As of the 2020 census, the city's population of 67,047 made it the state's ninth-largest city by population. The city is in eastern New Y ...

; and on his mother's side, he was descended from the

German-Jewish The history of the Jews in Germany goes back at least to the year 321, and continued through the Early Middle Ages (5th to 10th centuries CE) and High Middle Ages (''circa'' 1000–1299 CE) when Jewish immigrants founded the Ashkenazi Jewish ...

Mordecai Mordecai (; also Mordechai; , IPA: ) is one of the main personalities in the Book of Esther in the Hebrew Bible. He is described as being the son of Jair, of the tribe of Benjamin. He was promoted to Vizier after Haman was killed. Biblical acco ...

family of

Raleigh, North Carolina Raleigh (; ) is the capital city of the state of North Carolina and the seat of Wake County in the United States. It is the second-most populous city in North Carolina, after Charlotte. Raleigh is the tenth-most populous city in the Southe ...

, who were prominent in state affairs.

Early years

As a youth, Lowell had a penchant for violence and bullying other children.Hamilton, Ian. Robert Lowell: A Biography, Faber & Faber, 1982. Describing himself as an 8½-year-old in the prose piece "91 Revere Street," Lowell wrote that he was "thick-witted, narcissistic, thuggish". As a teenager, Lowell's peers gave him the nickname "Cal" after both the villainous Shakespeare character

Caliban Caliban ( ), son of the witch Sycorax, is an important character in William Shakespeare's play '' The Tempest''. His character is one of the few Shakespearean figures to take on a life of its own "outside" Shakespeare's own work: as Russell H ...

and the tyrannical Roman emperor Caligula, and the nickname stuck with him throughout his life. Lowell would later reference the nickname in his poem "Caligula," first published in his book '' For the Union Dead'' and later republished in a revised sonnet version for his book ''Notebook 1967–1968''. Lowell received his high school education at St. Mark's School, a prominent prep school in Southborough, Massachusetts. There he met and was influenced by the poet

Richard Eberhart Richard Ghormley Eberhart (April 5, 1904 – June 9, 2005) was an American poet who published more than a dozen books of poetry and approximately twenty works in total. "Richard Eberhart emerged out of the 1930s as a modern stylist with romanti ...

, who taught at the school, and as a high school student, Lowell decided that he wanted to become a poet. At St. Mark's, he became lifelong friends with Frank Parker, an artist who later created the prints that Lowell used on the covers of most of his books. Lowell attended

Harvard College Harvard College is the undergraduate college of Harvard University, an Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636, Harvard College is the original school of Harvard University, the oldest institution of higher lea ...

for two years. While he was a freshman at Harvard, he visited Robert Frost in Cambridge and asked for feedback on a long poem he had written on the Crusades; Frost suggested that Lowell needed to work on his compression. In an interview, Lowell recalled, "I had a huge blank verse epic on the

First Crusade The First Crusade (1096–1099) was the first of a series of religious wars, or Crusades, initiated, supported and at times directed by the Latin Church in the medieval period. The objective was the recovery of the Holy Land from Islamic r ...

and took it to him all in my undecipherable pencil-writing, and he read a little of it, and said, 'It goes on rather a bit, doesn't it?' And then he read me the opening of Keats's 'Hyperion,' the first version, and I thought all of that was sublime." After two years at Harvard, Lowell was unhappy, and his psychiatrist,

Merrill Moore Merrill Moore (1903 – 1957) was an American psychiatrist and poet. Born and educated in Tennessee, he was a member of the Fugitives. He taught neurology at the Harvard Medical School and published research about alcoholism. He was the aut ...

, who was also a poet, suggested that Lowell take a leave of absence from Harvard to get away from his parents and to study with Moore's friend, the poet-professor

who was then living in Nashville and teaching at Vanderbilt. Lowell traveled to Nashville with Moore, who took Lowell to Tate's house. Lowell asked Tate if he could live with him and his wife, and Tate joked that if Lowell wanted to, Lowell could pitch a tent on Tate's lawn; Lowell then went to

Sears Sears, Roebuck and Co. ( ), commonly known as Sears, is an American chain of department stores founded in 1892 by Richard Warren Sears and Alvah Curtis Roebuck and reincorporated in 1906 by Richard Sears and Julius Rosenwald, with what began a ...

to purchase a tent that he set up on Tate's lawn and lived in for two months.Voices and Visions Series on Lowell - http://www.learner.org/resources/series57.html?pop=yes&pid=601 Lowell called the act "a terrible piece of youthful callousness". After spending time with the Tates in Nashville (and attending some classes taught by John Crowe Ransom at Vanderbilt), Lowell decided to leave Harvard. When Tate and John Crowe Ransom left Vanderbilt for

Kenyon College Kenyon College is a private liberal arts college in Gambier, Ohio. It was founded in 1824 by Philander Chase. Kenyon College is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission. Kenyon has 1,708 undergraduates enrolled. Its 1,000-acre campus is ...

in Ohio, Lowell followed them and resumed his studies there, majoring in Classics, in which he earned an

A.B. Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four yea ...

summa cum laude. He was elected to

Phi Beta Kappa The Phi Beta Kappa Society () is the oldest academic honor society in the United States, and the most prestigious, due in part to its long history and academic selectivity. Phi Beta Kappa aims to promote and advocate excellence in the liberal ...

his junior year and was

Valedictorian Valedictorian is an academic title for the highest-performing student of a graduating class of an academic institution. The valedictorian is commonly determined by a numerical formula, generally an academic institution's grade point average (GPA ...

of his class. He settled into the so-called "writer's house" (a dorm that received its nickname after it had accrued a number of ambitious young writers) with fellow students

Peter Taylor Peter Taylor may refer to: Arts * Peter Taylor (writer) (1917–1994), American author, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction * Peter Taylor (film editor) (1922–1997), English film editor, winner of an Academy Award for Film Editing Politi ...

Robie Macauley Robie Mayhew Macauley (May 31, 1919 – November 20, 1995) was an American editor, novelist and critic whose literary career spanned more than 50 years. Biography Early life Robie Macauley was born on May 31, 1919, in Grand Rapids, Michigan ...

and

Randall Jarrell Randall Jarrell (May 6, 1914 – October 14, 1965) was an American poet, literary critic, children's author, essayist, and novelist. He was the 11th Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress—a position that now bears the title Poe ...

. Partly in rebellion against his parents, Lowell converted from Episcopalianism to Catholicism.Robert Lowell @ Poets.org
/ref> After Lowell graduated from Kenyon in 1940 with a degree in Classics, he worked on a master's degree in English literature at

Louisiana State University Louisiana State University (officially Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, commonly referred to as LSU) is a public land-grant research university in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The university was founded in 1860 nea ...

and taught introductory courses in English for one year before the U.S. entered World War II.

Political engagement

Lowell was a conscientious objector during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

and served several months at the federal prison in Danbury, Connecticut. He explained his decision not to serve in World War II in a letter addressed to President Franklin Roosevelt on September 7, 1943, stating, "Dear Mr President: I very much regret that I must refuse the opportunity you offer me in your communication of August 6, 1943 for service in the Armed Force."Hamilton, Saskia, ed. ''The Letters of Robert Lowell''. New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2005. 37-39. He explained that after the bombing at

Pearl Harbor Pearl Harbor is an American lagoon harbor on the island of Oahu, Hawaii, west of Honolulu. It was often visited by the Naval fleet of the United States, before it was acquired from the Hawaiian Kingdom by the U.S. with the signing of the R ...

, he was prepared to fight in the war until he read about the American terms of

unconditional surrender An unconditional surrender is a surrender in which no guarantees are given to the surrendering party. It is often demanded with the threat of complete destruction, extermination or annihilation. In modern times, unconditional surrenders most ofte ...

that he feared would lead to the "permanent destruction of Germany and Japan." Before Lowell was transferred to the prison in Connecticut, he was held in a prison in New York City that he later wrote about in the poem "Memories of West Street and Lepke" in his book ''Life Studies'', inspired by a prison encounter with notorious gangster Lepke Buchalter. While at

Yaddo Yaddo is an artists' community located on a estate in Saratoga Springs, New York. Its mission is "to nurture the creative process by providing an opportunity for artists to work without interruption in a supportive environment.". On March ...

in 1949 Lowell becam
involved in the Red Scare
and accused then director, Elizabeth Ames, of harboring communists and being romantically involved with another resident,

Agnes Smedley Agnes Smedley (February 23, 1892 – May 6, 1950) was an American journalist, writer, and activist who supported the Indian Independence Movement and the Chinese Communist Revolution. Raised in a poverty-stricken miner's family in Missouri and Co ...

. If Ames were not fired immediately, Lowell vowed to "blacken the name of Yaddo as widely as possible" using his connections in the literary sphere and Washington. The Yaddo board voted to drop all charges against Ames. Vietnam War protestors at the March on the Pentagon

Vietnam War protestors at the March on the Pentagon

Lowell's letter to the president was his first major political act of protest, but it would not be his last. During the mid to late 1960s, Lowell actively opposed the

Vietnam War The Vietnam War (also known by other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vietnam a ...

. In response to American air raids in Vietnam in 1965, Lowell rejected an invitation to the White House Festival of the Arts from President Lyndon Johnson in a letter that he subsequently published in ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'', stating, "We are in danger of imperceptibly becoming an explosive and suddenly chauvinistic nation, and may even be drifting on our way to the last nuclear ruin." Ian Hamilton notes that "throughout 967 owellwas in demand as a speaker and petition signer gainst the war He was vehemently opposed to the war, but equivocal about being identified too closely with the 'peace movement': there were many views he did not share with the more fiery of the 'peaceniks' and it was not in his nature to join movements that he had no wish to lead." However, Lowell did participate in the October 1967

March on the Pentagon The March on the Pentagon was a massive demonstration against the Vietnam War on October 21, 1967. The protest involved more than 100,000 attendees at a rally by the Lincoln Memorial. Later about 50,000 people marched across the city to The Penta ...

in Washington, D.C. against the war and was one of the featured speakers at the event. Norman Mailer, who was also a featured speaker at the rally, introduced Lowell to the crowd of protesters. Mailer described the peace march and his impression of Lowell that day in the early sections of his

non-fiction novel The non-fiction novel is a literary genre which, broadly speaking, depicts real historical figures and actual events woven together with fictitious conversations and uses the storytelling techniques of fiction. The non-fiction novel is an otherw ...

The Armies of the Night ''The Armies of the Night: History as a Novel/The Novel as History'' is a nonfiction novel recounting the October 1967 March on the Pentagon written by Norman Mailer and published by New American Library in 1968. It won the Pulitzer Prize for Ge ...

''. Lowell was also a signer of the anti-war manifesto "A Call to Resist Illegitimate Authority" circulated by members of the radical intellectual collective

RESIST A resist, used in many areas of manufacturing and art, is something that is added to parts of an object to create a pattern by protecting these parts from being affected by a subsequent stage in the process. Often the resist is then removed. For ...

. In 1968, Lowell publicly supported the Minnesota Senator Eugene McCarthy in his campaign for the Democratic nomination for president in a three-way primary against

Robert F. Kennedy Robert Francis Kennedy (November 20, 1925June 6, 1968), also known by his initials RFK and by the nickname Bobby, was an American lawyer and politician who served as the 64th United States Attorney General from January 1961 to September 1964, ...

and

Hubert Humphrey Hubert Horatio Humphrey Jr. (May 27, 1911 – January 13, 1978) was an American pharmacist and politician who served as the 38th vice president of the United States from 1965 to 1969. He twice served in the United States Senate, representing Mi ...

. Lowell spoke at numerous fundraisers for McCarthy in New York that year, but " isheart went out of the race" after Robert Kennedy's assassination.

Teaching

From 1950 to 1953, Lowell taught in the well-reputed

Iowa Writers' Workshop The Iowa Writers' Workshop, at the University of Iowa, is a celebrated graduate-level creative writing program in the United States. The writer Lan Samantha Chang is its director. Graduates earn a Master of Fine Arts (MFA) degree in Creative W ...

at the

University of Iowa The University of Iowa (UI, U of I, UIowa, or simply Iowa) is a public research university in Iowa City, Iowa, United States. Founded in 1847, it is the oldest and largest university in the state. The University of Iowa is organized into 12 col ...

, together with

Paul Engle Paul Engle (October 12, 1908 – March 22, 1991), was an American poet, editor, teacher, literary critic, novelist, and playwright. He is remembered as the long-time director of the Iowa Writers' Workshop and as co-founder of the International W ...

and Robie Macauley. Later,

Donald James Winslow Donald James Winslow (1911 – 10 July 2010) was a professor at Boston University in Boston, United States who specialized in the subject of biography. Life Donald James Winslow was born in 1911, the third of four children of Guy Winslow, presiden ...

hired Lowell to teach at

Boston University Boston University (BU) is a Private university, private research university in Boston, Massachusetts. The university is nonsectarian, but has a historical affiliation with the United Methodist Church. It was founded in 1839 by Methodists with ...

, where his students included the poets

Sylvia Plath Sylvia Plath (; October 27, 1932 – February 11, 1963) was an American poet, novelist, and short story writer. She is credited with advancing the genre of confessional poetry and is best known for two of her published collections, '' Th ...

and

Anne Sexton Anne Sexton (born Anne Gray Harvey; November 9, 1928 – October 4, 1974) was an American poet known for her highly personal, confessional verse. She won the Pulitzer Prize for poetry in 1967 for her book '' Live or Die''. Her poetry details ...

. Over the years, he taught at a number of other universities including the

University of Cincinnati The University of Cincinnati (UC or Cincinnati) is a public research university in Cincinnati, Ohio. Founded in 1819 as Cincinnati College, it is the oldest institution of higher education in Cincinnati and has an annual enrollment of over 44,0 ...

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Sta ...

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...

, and the New School for Social Research. Numerous poets, critics and scholars, including Kathleen Spivack,

James Atlas James Robert Atlas (March 22, 1949 – September 4, 2019) was a writer, especially of biographies, as well as a publisher. He was the president of Atlas & Company and founding editor of the Penguin Lives Series. Early life and education Atlas wa ...

, Helen Vendler, and Dudley Young, have written essays about Lowell's teaching style and/or about his influence over their lives. In 2012, Spivack also published a book, ''With Robert Lowell and His Circle'', about her experience studying with Lowell at Boston University in 1959. From 1963 to 1970, Lowell commuted from his home in New York City to Boston in order to teach classes at Harvard. The scholar Helen Vendler attended one of Lowell's poetry courses and wrote that one of the best aspects of Lowell's informal style was that he talked about poets in class as though "the poets eing studiedwere friends or acquaintances". Hamilton quoted students who stated that Lowell "taught 'almost by indirection,' 'he turned every poet into a version of himself,' nd'he told stories bout the poets' livesas if they were the latest news.'"

Influences

In March 2005, the

Academy of American Poets The Academy of American Poets is a national, member-supported organization that promotes poets and the art of poetry. The nonprofit organization was incorporated in the state of New York in 1934. It fosters the readership of poetry through outreach ...

named ''Life Studies'' one of their ''Groundbreaking Books'' of the 20th century, stating that it had "a profound impact", particularly over the

confessional poetry Confessional poetry or "Confessionalism" is a style of poetry that emerged in the United States during the late 1950s and early 1960s. It is sometimes classified as a form of Postmodernism. It has been described as poetry of the personal or "I", ...

movement that the book helped launch. The editors of ''Contemporary Literary Criticism'' wrote that the book "exerted a profound influence on subsequent American poets, including other first generation confessionalists such as Sylvia Plath and Anne Sexton." In a 1962 interview, Sylvia Plath stated that ''Life Studies'' had influenced the poetry she was writing at that time (and which her husband,

Ted Hughes Edward James "Ted" Hughes (17 August 1930 – 28 October 1998) was an English poet, translator, and children's writer. Critics frequently rank him as one of the best poets of his generation and one of the twentieth century's greatest wri ...

, would publish posthumously as ''

Ariel Ariel may refer to: Film and television *Ariel Award, a Mexican Academy of Film award * ''Ariel'' (film), a 1988 Finnish film by Aki Kaurismäki * ''ARIEL Visual'' and ''ARIEL Deluxe'', 1989 and 1991 anime video series based on the novel series ...

'' a few years later): "I've been very excited by what I feel is the new breakthrough that came with, say, Robert Lowell's ''Life Studies'', this intense breakthrough into very serious, very personal, emotional experience which I feel has been partly taboo. Robert Lowell's poems about his experience in a mental hospital, for example, interested me very much." In an essay published in 1985, the poet

Stanley Kunitz Stanley Jasspon Kunitz (; July 29, 1905May 14, 2006) was an American poet. He was appointed Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress twice, first in 1974 and then again in 2000. Biography Kunitz was born in Worcester, Massach ...

wrote that ''Life Studies'' was "perhaps the most influential book of modern verse since T. S. Eliot's ''

The Waste Land ''The Waste Land'' is a poem by T. S. Eliot, widely regarded as one of the most important poems of the 20th century and a central work of modernist poetry. Published in 1922, the 434-line poem first appeared in the United Kingdom in the Octob ...

''."Kunitz, Stanley. ''Next-to-Last Things: New Poems and Essays''. Boston: Atlantic Monthly Press, 1985. During the 1960s, Lowell was the most public, well-known American poet; in June 1967, he appeared on the cover of ''Time'' as part of a cover story in which he was praised as "the best American poet of his generation." Although the article gave a general overview of modern American poetry (mentioning Lowell's contemporaries like

John Berryman John Allyn McAlpin Berryman (born John Allyn Smith, Jr.; October 25, 1914 – January 7, 1972) was an American poet and scholar. He was a major figure in American poetry in the second half of the 20th century and is considered a key figure in th ...

and Elizabeth Bishop), Lowell's life, career, and place in the American

literary canon The term canon derives from the Greek (), meaning "rule", and thence via Latin and Old French into English. The concept in English usage is very broad: in a general sense it refers to being one (adjectival) or a group (noun) of official, authent ...

remained the article's focus.

Relationships

Robert Lowell, Jean Stafford and Peter Taylor in 1941

Lowell married the novelist and short-story writer

Jean Stafford Jean Stafford (July 1, 1915 – March 26, 1979) was an American short story writer and novelist. She won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for '' The Collected Stories of Jean Stafford'' in 1970. Biography She was born in Covina, California, to M ...

in 1940. Before their marriage, in 1938, Lowell and Stafford were in a serious car crash, in which Lowell was at the wheel, that left Stafford permanently scarred, while Lowell walked away unscathed. The impact crushed Stafford's nose and cheekbone and required her to undergo multiple reconstructive surgeries. The couple had a tumultuous marriage—the poet

Anthony Hecht Anthony Evan Hecht (January 16, 1923 – October 20, 2004) was an American poet. His work combined a deep interest in form with a passionate desire to confront the horrors of 20th century history, with the World War II, Second World War, in which ...

characterized it as "a tormented and tormenting one"— that ended in 1948. Shortly thereafter, in 1949, Lowell married the writer Elizabeth Hardwick with whom he had a daughter, Harriet, in 1957. After Hardwick's death in 2007, ''The New York Times'' would characterize the marriage as "restless and emotionally harrowing," reflecting the very public portrait of their marriage and divorce as Lowell captured it in his books ''For Lizzie and Harriet'' and ''The Dolphin''. After 23 years of marriage to Elizabeth Hardwick, in 1970, Lowell left her for Caroline Blackwood. Blackwood and Lowell were married in 1972 in England where they decided to settle and where they raised their son, Sheridan. Lowell also became the stepfather to Blackwood's young daughter, Ivana, for whom he would write the sonnet "Ivana," published in his book ''The Dolphin''. Lowell had a close friendship with the poet

that lasted from 1947 until Lowell's death in 1977. Both writers relied upon one another for critiques of their poetry (which is in evidence in their voluminous correspondence, published in the book ''Words in Air: the Complete Correspondence between Elizabeth Bishop and Robert Lowell'' in 2008) and thereby influenced one another's work. Bishop's influence over Lowell can be seen at work in at least two of Lowell's poems: "The Scream" (inspired by Bishop's short story "In the Village") and " Skunk Hour" (inspired by Bishop's poem "The Armadillo"), and the scholar Thomas Travisano notes, more broadly, that "Lowell's ''Life Studies'' and ''For the Union Dead'', his most enduringly popular books, were written under Bishop's direct influence." Lowell also maintained a close friendship with Randall Jarrell from their 1937 meeting at Kenyon College until Jarrell's 1965 death. Lowell openly acknowledged Jarrell's influence over his writing and frequently sought out Jarrell's input regarding his poems before he published them. In a letter to Jarrell from 1957, Lowell wrote, "I suppose we shouldn't swap too many compliments, but I am heavily in your debt."

Mental illness

Lowell was hospitalized many times throughout his adult life due to

bipolar disorder Bipolar disorder, previously known as manic depression, is a mental disorder characterized by periods of depression and periods of abnormally elevated mood that last from days to weeks each. If the elevated mood is severe or associated with ...

, the mental condition then known as "manic depression".Helen Vendler phone interview on Robert Lowell and Elizabeth Bishop
audio podcast from ''

The New York Review of Books ''The New York Review of Books'' (or ''NYREV'' or ''NYRB'') is a semi-monthly magazine with articles on literature, culture, economics, science and current affairs. Published in New York City, it is inspired by the idea that the discussion of i ...

''. Accessed September 11, 2010 On multiple occasions, Lowell was admitted to the

McLean Hospital McLean Hospital () (formerly known as Somerville Asylum and Charlestown Asylum) is a psychiatric hospital in Belmont, Massachusetts. It is noted for its clinical staff expertise and neuroscience research and is also known for the large number of ...

in Belmont, Massachusetts, and one of his poems, " Waking in the Blue", references his stay in this large psychiatric facility. While bipolar disorder was often a great burden to the writer and his family, it also provided the subject for some of Lowell's most influential poetry, as in his book ''Life Studies''. When he was fifty, Lowell began taking

lithium Lithium (from el, λίθος, lithos, lit=stone) is a chemical element with the symbol Li and atomic number 3. It is a soft, silvery-white alkali metal. Under standard conditions, it is the least dense metal and the least dense solid ...

to treat the condition.

Saskia Hamilton Saskia Hamilton (born 1967 Washington, D.C.) is an American poet. She graduated from Kenyon College with a B.A., from New York University with an M.A., and from Boston University with Ph.D. She worked for the Folger Shakespeare Library, and the L ...

, the editor of Lowell's ''Letters'', notes, "Lithium treatment relieved him from suffering the idea that he was morally and emotionally responsible for the fact that he relapsed. However, it did not entirely prevent relapses... And he was troubled and anxious about the impact of his relapses on his family and friends until the end of his life."

Death

Lowell died from a heart attack in a taxi cab in Manhattan on September 12, 1977, at the age of 60, while on his way to see his ex-wife, Elizabeth Hardwick. He was buried in Stark Cemetery in

Dunbarton, New Hampshire Dunbarton is a town in Merrimack County, New Hampshire, United States. The population was 3,005 at the 2020 census, up from 2,758 at the 2010 census. History Originally granted as "Gorham's-town" in 1735, and re-granted as "Starkstown" in 17 ...

Writing

1940s

Lowell's early poetry was "characterized by its Christian motifs and symbolism, historical references, and intricate formalism." His first three volumes were notably influenced by the

New Critics New Criticism was a formalist movement in literary theory that dominated American literary criticism in the middle decades of the 20th century. It emphasized close reading, particularly of poetry, to discover how a work of literature functioned ...

, particularly Lowell's former professors, John Crowe Ransom and Allen Tate. Lowell's first book of poems, '' Land of Unlikeness'' (1944) was also highly influenced by Lowell's conversion to Catholicism, leading Tate to call Lowell "a Catholic poet" in his introduction to the volume. The book was published by a small press as a limited edition, but still received some "decent reviews" from major publications like ''Poetry'' and ''Partisan Review''. In 1946, Lowell received wide acclaimJarrell, Randall. "From the Kingdom of Necessity." ''No Other Book: Selected Essays''. HarperCollins, 1999. p. 208-215. for his next book, ''

Lord Weary's Castle ''Lord Weary's Castle'', Robert Lowell's second book of poetry, won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1947 when Lowell was only thirty. Robert Giroux, who was the publisher of Lowell's wife at the time, Jean Stafford, also became Lowell's publi ...

'', which included five poems slightly revised from ''Land of Unlikeness'' and thirty new poems. Among the better-known poems in the volume are "Mr. Edwards and the Spider" and " The Quaker Graveyard in Nantucket." ''Lord Weary's Castle'' was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1947. That year, Lowell also was awarded a Guggenheim fellowship. Randall Jarrell gave ''Lord Weary's Castle'' high praise, writing, "It is unusually difficult to say which are the best poems in ''Lord Weary's Castle'': several are realized past changing, successes that vary only in scope and intensity--others are poems that almost any living poet would be pleased to have written ... ndone or two of these poems, I think, will be read as long as men remember English." Following soon after his success with ''Lord Weary's Castle'', Lowell served as the Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress from 1947 to 1948 (a position now known as the U.S.

Poet Laureate A poet laureate (plural: poets laureate) is a poet officially appointed by a government or conferring institution, typically expected to compose poems for special events and occasions. Albertino Mussato of Padua and Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch ...

1950s

In 1951, Lowell published '' The Mills of the Kavanaughs'', which centered on its epic title poem and failed to receive the high praise that his previous book had received. Although it received a generally positive review in ''The New York Times'',

gave the book a mixed review.Jarrell, Randall. "A View of Three Poets." ''Partisan Review''. November/December 1951, 696. Although Jarrell liked the shorter poems, he thought the epic title poem didn't work, stating ""The people n 'The Mills of the Kavanaughs'too often seem to be acting ''in the manner'' of Robert Lowell, rather than plausibly as real people act . . .I doubt that many readers will think them real." Following ''The Mills of the Kavanaughs'', Lowell hit a creative roadblock and took a long break from publishing. However, by the end of the decade, he started writing again and changed stylistic direction with his next book of verse, ''Life Studies'' (1959), which won the

for poetry in 1960 and became the most influential book that Lowell would ever publish."National Book Awards – 1960"

National Book Foundation The National Book Foundation (NBF) is an American nonprofit organization established, "to raise the cultural appreciation of great writing in America". Established in 1989 by National Book Awards, Inc.,Edwin McDowell. "Book Notes: 'The Joy Luc ...

. Retrieved 2012-03-02.
(With acceptance speech by Lowell and essay by Dilruba Ahmed from the Awards 60-year anniversary blog.)Groundbreaking Poets: Life Studies. No author listed
In his acceptance speech for the National Book Award, Lowell famously divided American poetry into two camps: the "cooked" and the "raw." This commentary by Lowell was made in reference to the popularity of

Allen Ginsberg Irwin Allen Ginsberg (; June 3, 1926 – April 5, 1997) was an American poet and writer. As a student at Columbia University in the 1940s, he began friendships with William S. Burroughs and Jack Kerouac, forming the core of the Beat Gener ...

and the Beat Generation poets and was a signal from Lowell that he was trying to incorporate some of their "raw" energy into his own poetry. Charlotte Winslow Lowell, 1915

The poems in ''Life Studies'' were written in a mix of free and metered verse, with much more informal language than he had used in his first three books. It marked both a turning point in Lowell's career and a turning point for

American poetry American poetry refers to the poetry of the United States. It arose first as efforts by American colonists to add their voices to English poetry in the 17th century, well before the constitutional unification of the Thirteen Colonies (although ...

in general. Because many of the poems documented details from Lowell's family life and personal problems, one critic, M. L. Rosenthal, labeled these poems "confessional" in a

review A review is an evaluation of a publication, product, service, or company or a critical take on current affairs in literature, politics or culture. In addition to a critical evaluation, the review's author may assign the work a rating to indi ...

of ''Life Studies'' that first appeared in ''The Nation'' magazine. Lowell's editor and friend

Frank Bidart Frank Bidart (born May 27, 1939) is an American academic and poet, and a winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry. Biography Bidart is a native of California and considered a career in acting or directing when he was young. In 1957, he began to s ...

notes in his afterword to Lowell's ''Collected Poems,'' "Lowell is widely, perhaps indelibly associated with the term 'confessional,'" though Bidart questions the accuracy of this label. But for better or worse, this label stuck and led to Lowell being grouped together with other influential confessional poets like Lowell's former students W. D. Snodgrass, Sylvia Plath, and Anne Sexton.

1960s

Lowell followed ''Life Studies'' with ''Imitations'' (1961), a volume of loose translations of poems by classical and modern European poets, including Rilke,

Montale Montale is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Province of Pistoia in the Italian region Tuscany, located about northwest of Florence and about east of Pistoia. Montale borders the following municipalities: Agliana, Cantagallo, Montemurlo, Pi ...

, Baudelaire, Pasternak, and

Rimbaud Jean Nicolas Arthur Rimbaud (, ; 20 October 1854 – 10 November 1891) was a French poet known for his transgressive and surreal themes and for his influence on modern literature and arts, prefiguring surrealism. Born in Charleville, he start ...

, for which he received the 1962 Bollingen Poetry Translation Prize. However, critical response to ''Imitations'' was mixed and sometimes hostile (as was the case with

Vladimir Nabokov Vladimir Vladimirovich Nabokov (russian: link=no, Владимир Владимирович Набоков ; 2 July 1977), also known by the pen name Vladimir Sirin (), was a Russian-American novelist, poet, translator, and entomologist. Bor ...

's public response to Lowell's Mandelstam translations). In a review of Lowell's ''Collected Poems'', the poet

Michael Hofmann Michael Hofmann (born 25 August 1957) is a German-born poet who writes in English and is a translator of texts from German. Biography Hofmann was born in Freiburg into a family with a literary tradition. His father was the German novelist Ger ...

wrote that although he thought ''Life Studies'' was Lowell's best book, ''Imitations'' was Lowell's most "pivotal book," arguing that the book "marks the entry into his work of what one might term 'international style', something coolly open to not-quite-English." In the book's introduction, Lowell explained that his idiosyncratic translations should be thought of as "imitations" rather than strict translations since he took many liberties with the originals, trying to "do what isauthors might have done if they were writing their poems now and in America." Also in 1961, Lowell published his English translation of the French verse play ''

Phèdre ''Phèdre'' (; originally ''Phèdre et Hippolyte'') is a French dramatic tragedy in five acts written in alexandrine verse by Jean Racine, first performed in 1677 at the theatre of the Hôtel de Bourgogne in Paris. Composition and premiere Wit ...

'' by 17th century playwright

Jean Racine Jean-Baptiste Racine ( , ) (; 22 December 163921 April 1699) was a French dramatist, one of the three great playwrights of 17th-century France, along with Molière and Corneille as well as an important literary figure in the Western traditi ...

. Lowell changed the spelling of the title of the play to ''Phaedra''. This translation was Lowell's first attempt at translating a play, and the piece received a generally positive review from ''The New York Times''. Broadway director and theater critic

Harold Clurman Harold Edgar Clurman (September 18, 1901 – September 9, 1980) was an American theatre director and drama critic. In 2003, he was named one of the most influential figures in U.S. theater by PBS.

wrote that Lowell's ''Phaedra'' was "a close paraphrase of Racine with a slightly Elizabethan tinge; it nevertheless renders a great deal of the excitement--if not the beauty--which exists in the original." Clurman accepted Lowell's contention that he wrote his version in a meter reminiscent of

Dryden '' John Dryden (; – ) was an English poet, literary critic, translator, and playwright who in 1668 was appointed England's first Poet Laureate. He is seen as dominating the literary life of Restoration England to such a point that the per ...

and

Pope The pope ( la, papa, from el, πάππας, translit=pappas, 'father'), also known as supreme pontiff ( or ), Roman pontiff () or sovereign pontiff, is the bishop of Rome (or historically the patriarch of Rome), head of the worldwide Cathol ...

, and while Clurman conceded that the feel of Lowell's version was very different from the feel of French verse, Clurman considered it to be like "a finely fiery English poem," particularly in passages where "Lowell's muse took flame from Racine's shade." Lowell's next book of original verse '' For the Union Dead'' (1964) was widely praised, particularly for its title poem, which invoked Allen Tate's "

Ode to the Confederate Dead "Ode to the Confederate Dead" is a long poem by the American poet-critic Allen Tate published in 1928 in Tate's first book of poems, ''Mr. Pope and Other Poems''. It is one of Tate's best-known poems and considered by some critics to be his most "i ...

." Helen Vendler states that the title poem in the collection "honors not only the person of he Civil War hero

Robert Gould Shaw Robert Gould Shaw (October 10, 1837 – July 18, 1863) was an American officer in the Union Army during the American Civil War. Born into a prominent Boston abolitionist family, he accepted command of the first all-black regiment (the 54th Mas ...

, but also the stern and beautiful memorial bronze bas-relief epicting Shaw and the all-black 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry Regiment... which stands opposite the Boston State House." Paula Hayes observes that, in this volume, "Lowell turned his attention toward ecology, Civil Rights, and labor rights ... often to the effect of combining the three concerns." ''For the Union Dead'' was Lowell's first book since ''Life Studies'' to contain all original verse (since it did not include any translations), and in writing the poems in this volume, Lowell built upon the looser, more personal style of writing that he had established in the final section of ''Life Studies''. Lowell also wrote about a number of world historical figures in poems like "Caligula," "Jonathan Edwards in Western Massachusetts," and "Lady Raleigh's Lament," and he combined personal and public concerns in poems like the title poem and "Fall 1961" which addressed Lowell's fear of nuclear war during the height of the Cold War. In 1964, Lowell also wrote three one-act plays that were meant to be performed together as a trilogy, titled ''

The Old Glory ''The Old Glory'' is a play written by the American poet Robert Lowell that was first performed in 1964. It consists of three pieces that were meant to be performed together as a trilogy. The first two pieces, " Endecott and the Red Cross" and "M ...

''. The first two parts, "Endecott the Red Cross" and "My Kinsman, Major Molineux" were stage adaptations of short stories by

Nathaniel Hawthorne Nathaniel Hawthorne (July 4, 1804 – May 19, 1864) was an American novelist and short story writer. His works often focus on history, morality, and religion. He was born in 1804 in Salem, Massachusetts, from a family long associated with that t ...

, and the third part, "Benito Cereno," was a stage adaptation of a novella by

Herman Melville Herman Melville ( born Melvill; August 1, 1819 – September 28, 1891) was an American novelist, short story writer, and poet of the American Renaissance period. Among his best-known works are ''Moby-Dick'' (1851); ''Typee'' (1846), a rom ...

. ''The Old Glory'' was produced off-Broadway at the

American Place Theatre The American Place Theatre was founded in 1963 by Wynn Handman, Sidney Lanier, and Michael Tolan at St. Clement's Church, 423 West 46th Street in Hell's Kitchen, New York City, and was incorporated as a not-for-profit theatre in that year. Tenness ...

in New York City in 1964 and directed by

Jonathan Miller Sir Jonathan Wolfe Miller CBE (21 July 1934 – 27 November 2019) was an English theatre and opera director, actor, author, television presenter, humourist and physician. After training in medicine and specialising in neurology in the late 1 ...

. It won five

Obie Awards The Obie Awards or Off-Broadway Theater Awards are annual awards originally given by ''The Village Voice'' newspaper to theatre artists and groups in New York City. In September 2014, the awards were jointly presented and administered with the A ...

in 1965 including an award for "Best American Play." The play was published in its first printing in 1965 (with a revised edition following in 1968). In 1967, Lowell published his next book of poems, ''Near the Ocean''. With this volume, Lowell returned to writing more formal, metered verse. The second half of the book also shows Lowell returning once again to writing loose translations (including verse approximations of

Dante Dante Alighieri (; – 14 September 1321), probably baptized Durante di Alighiero degli Alighieri and often referred to as Dante (, ), was an Italian people, Italian Italian poetry, poet, writer and philosopher. His ''Divine Comedy'', origin ...

Juvenal Decimus Junius Juvenalis (), known in English as Juvenal ( ), was a Roman poet active in the late first and early second century CE. He is the author of the collection of satirical poems known as the '' Satires''. The details of Juvenal's life ...

, and Horace). The best known poem in this volume is "Waking Early Sunday Morning," which was written in eight-line tetrameter stanzas (borrowed from

Andrew Marvell Andrew Marvell (; 31 March 1621 – 16 August 1678) was an English metaphysical poet, satirist and politician who sat in the House of Commons at various times between 1659 and 1678. During the Commonwealth period he was a colleague and friend ...

's poem "Ode upon Cromwell's Return from Ireland")Hamilton, Ian. Robert Lowell: A Biography, Faber & Faber, 1982. p 327. and showed contemporary American politics overtly entering into Lowell's work. Ian Hamilton noted that "'Waking Early Sunday Morning' is now thought of as a key 'political poem' of the 1960s." During 1967 and 1968, Lowell experimented with a verse journal, first published as ''Notebook 1967-68'' (and later republished in a revised and expanded edition, titled ''Notebook''). Lowell referred to these fourteen-line poems as

sonnets A sonnet is a poetic form that originated in the poetry composed at the Court of the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II in the Sicilian city of Palermo. The 13th-century poet and notary Giacomo da Lentini is credited with the sonnet's inventio ...

although they sometimes failed to incorporate regular meter and rhyme (both of which are defining features of the sonnet form); however, some of Lowell's sonnets (particularly the ones in ''Notebook 1967-1968'') were written in

blank verse Blank verse is poetry written with regular metrical but unrhymed lines, almost always in iambic pentameter. It has been described as "probably the most common and influential form that English poetry has taken since the 16th century", and Pa ...

with a definitive pentameter and a small handful also included rhyme. Regarding the issue of meter in these poems, Lowell wrote "My meter, fourteen line unrhymed blank verse sections, is fairly strict at first and elsewhere, but often corrupts in single lines to the freedom of prose."Lowell, Robert. ''Notebook 1967-1968''. Farrar, Straus, & Giroux. New York: 1968. p. 160. In the ''Notebook'' poems, Lowell included the poem "In The Cage," a sonnet that he had originally published in ''Lord Weary's Castle''. He also included revised, sonnet versions of the poems "Caligula" and "Night-Sweat" (originally published in ''For the Union Dead'') and of "1958" and "To Theodore Roethke: 1908-1963" (originally published in ''Near the Ocean''). In his "Afterthought" at the end of ''Notebook 1967-1968'', Lowell explained the premise and timeline of the book:

This is not my diary, my confession, not a puritan's too literal pornographic honesty, glad to share private embarrassment, and triumph. The time is a summer, an autumn, a winter, a spring, another summer; here the poem ends, except for turned-back bits of fall and winter 1968 ... My plot rolls with the seasons. The separate poems and sections are opportunist and inspired by impulse. Accident threw up subjects, and the plot swallowed them--famished for human chances. I lean heavily to the rational, but am devoted to surrealism.

In this same "Afterthought" section, Lowell acknowledges some of his source materials for the poems, writing, "I have taken from many books, used the throwaway conversational inspirations of my friends, and much more that I idly spoke to myself." Some of the sources and authors he cites include Jesse Glenn Gray's ''The Warriors'',

Simone Weil Simone Adolphine Weil ( , ; 3 February 1909 – 24 August 1943) was a French philosopher, mystic, and political activist. Over 2,500 scholarly works have been published about her, including close analyses and readings of her work, since 1995. ...

's ''Half a Century Gone'', Herbert Marcuse, Aijaz Ahmad,

R. P. Blackmur Richard Palmer Blackmur (January 21, 1904 – February 2, 1965) was an American literary critic and poet. Life Blackmur was born and grew up in Springfield, Massachusetts. He attended Cambridge High and Latin School, but was expelled in 1918. A ...

Plutarch Plutarch (; grc-gre, Πλούταρχος, ''Ploútarchos''; ; – after AD 119) was a Greek Middle Platonist philosopher, historian, biographer, essayist, and priest at the Temple of Apollo in Delphi. He is known primarily for hi ...

, Stonewall Jackson, and

Ralph Waldo Emerson Ralph Waldo Emerson (May 25, 1803April 27, 1882), who went by his middle name Waldo, was an American essayist, lecturer, philosopher, abolitionist, and poet who led the transcendentalist movement of the mid-19th century. He was seen as a champ ...

. Steven Gould Axelrod wrote that, " owell's concept behind the sonnet formwas to achieve the balance of freedom and order, discontinuity and continuity, that he adobserved in allaceStevens's late long poems and in John Berryman's '' Dream Songs,'' then nearing completion. He hoped that his form ... would enable him 'to describe the immediate instant,' an instant in which political and personal happenings interacted with a lifetime's accumulation of memories, dreams, and knowledge." Lowell liked the new form so much that he reworked and revised many of the poems from ''Notebook'' and used them as the foundation for his next three volumes of verse, all of which employed the same loose, fourteen-line sonnet form. In 1969, Lowell made his last foray into dramatic work with the publication of his prose translation of the ancient Greek play ''

Prometheus Bound ''Prometheus Bound'' ( grc, Προμηθεὺς Δεσμώτης, ''Promētheús Desmṓtēs'') is an Ancient Greek tragedy traditionally attributed to Aeschylus and thought to have been composed sometime between 479 BC and the terminus ant ...

'' by

Aeschylus Aeschylus (, ; grc-gre, Αἰσχύλος ; c. 525/524 – c. 456/455 BC) was an ancient Greek tragedian, and is often described as the father of tragedy. Academic knowledge of the genre begins with his work, and understanding of earlier Greek ...

. The play was directed by Jonathan Miller, who had previously directed Lowell's ''The Old Glory'', at the

Yale School of Drama The David Geffen School of Drama at Yale University is a graduate professional school of Yale University, located in New Haven, Connecticut. Founded in 1924 as the Department of Drama in the School of Fine Arts, the school provides training in e ...

1970s

In 1973, Lowell published three books of sonnets. The first two, ''

History History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbrella term comprising past events as well ...

'' and '' For Lizzie and Harriet'', consisted of revised and reordered versions of sonnets from ''Notebook''. ''History'' included poems that primarily dealt with

world history World history may refer to: * Human history, the history of human beings * History of Earth, the history of planet Earth * World history (field), a field of historical study that takes a global perspective * ''World History'' (album), a 1998 albu ...

from antiquity up to the mid-20th century (although the book did not always follow a linear or logical path and contained many poems about Lowell's friends, peers, and family). The second book, ''For Lizzie and Harriet'', included poems that described the breakdown of his second marriage and contained poems that were supposed to be in the voices of his daughter, Harriet, and his second wife, Elizabeth. Finally, the last work in Lowell's sonnet sequence, '' The Dolphin'' (1973), which won the 1974 Pulitzer Prize, included poems about his daughter, his ex-wife, and his new wife Caroline Blackwood whom he had affectionately nicknamed "Dolphin." The book only contained new poems, making it the only book in Lowell's 1973 sonnet trilogy not to include revised and reordered poems from ''Notebook''. A minor controversy erupted when Lowell admitted to having incorporated (and altered) private letters from his ex-wife, Elizabeth Hardwick into poems for ''The Dolphin''. He was particularly criticized for this by his friends

Adrienne Rich Adrienne Cecile Rich ( ; May 16, 1929 – March 27, 2012) was an American poet, essayist and feminist. She was called "one of the most widely read and influential poets of the second half of the 20th century", and was credited with bringing "the ...

and Elizabeth Bishop. Bishop presented Lowell with an argument against publishing ''The Dolphin''. In a letter to Lowell regarding ''The Dolphin'', dated March 21, 1972, before he'd published the book, Bishop praised the writing, saying, "Please believe that I think it is wonderful poetry." But then she stated, "I'm sure my point is only too plain ... Lizzie ardwickis not dead, etc.--but there is a 'mixture of fact & fiction' n the book and you have ''changed'' ardwick'sletters. That is 'infinite mischief,' I think ... One can use one's life as material--one does anyway--but these letters--aren't you violating a trust? IF you were given permission--IF you hadn't changed them ... etc. But ''art just isn't worth that much''." Adrienne Rich responded to the controversy quite differently. Instead of sending Lowell a private letter on the matter, she publicly criticized Lowell and his books ''The Dolphin'' and ''To Lizzie and Harriet'' in a review that appeared in the ''American Poetry Review'' and that effectively ended the two poets' long-standing friendship. Rich called the poems "cruel and shallow." Lowell's sonnets from the ''Notebook'' poems through to ''The Dolphin'' met with mixed responses upon publication, and critical consensus on the poems continues to be mixed. Some of Lowell's contemporaries, like Derek Walcott and William Meredith, praised the poems. Meredith wrote about ''Notebook: 1967–68'', "Complex and imperfect, like most of the accomplishments of serious men and women today, Robert Lowell's ''Notebook 1967–68'' is nevertheless a beautiful and major work." But a review of ''History'', ''For Lizzie and Harriet'', and ''The Dolphin'' by Calvin Bedient in ''The New York Times'' was mostly negative. Bedient wrote, "Inchoate and desultory, the poems never accumulate and break in the great way, like a waterfall seen from the lip, more felt than seen. In truth, they are under no pressure to go anywhere, except to the 14th line. Prey to random associations, they are full of false starts, fractures, distractions." The sonnets also received a negative review by William Pritchard in the ''

Hudson Review ''The Hudson Review'' is a quarterly journal of literature and the arts. History It was founded in 1947 in New York, by William Arrowsmith, Joseph Deericks Bennett, and George Frederick Morgan. The first issue was introduced in the spring of ...

''. Since the release of Lowell's ''Collected Poems'' in 2003, a number of critics and poets have praised the sonnets, including Michael Hofmann, William Logan, and Richard Tillinghast (though Logan and Hofmann note that they both strongly preferred the original ''Notebook'' versions of the sonnets over the revised versions that Lowell published in ''History'' and ''To Lizzie and Harriet''). Still the sonnet volumes have received recent negative responses as well. In an otherwise glowing review of Lowell's ''Collected Poems'',

A.O. Scott Anthony Oliver Scott (born July 10, 1966) is an American journalist and cultural critic. He has been chief film critic for ''The New York Times'' since 2004, a title he shares with Manohla Dargis. Early life Scott was born on July 10, 1966 in ...

wrote, "The three sonnet sequences Lowell published in 1973 ... occupy nearly 300 pages, and reading them, one damn sonnet after the other, induces more stupor than rapture." And in her review of the ''Collected Poems'', Marjorie Perloff called the sonnet poems "trivial and catty," considering them to be Lowell's least important volumes. Lowell published his last volume of poetry, '' Day by Day'', in 1977, the year of his death. In May 1977, Lowell won the $10,000 National Medal for Literature awarded by the

American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters The American Academy of Arts and Letters is a 300-member honor society whose goal is to "foster, assist, and sustain excellence" in American literature, music, and art. Its fixed number membership is elected for lifetime appointments. Its headq ...

, and ''Day by Day'' was awarded that year's

National Book Critics Circle Award The National Book Critics Circle Awards are a set of annual American literary awards by the National Book Critics Circle (NBCC) to promote "the finest books and reviews published in English".'Day by Day'' wasa very touching, moving, gentle book, tinged with a sense of owell'sown pain and the pain e'dgiven to others." It was Lowell's only volume to contain nothing but free verse. In many of the poems, Lowell reflects on his life, his past relationships, and his own mortality. The best-known poem from this collection is the last one, titled "Epilogue," in which Lowell reflects upon the "confessional" school of poetry with which his work was associated. In this poem he wrote,

But sometimes everything I write
with the threadbare art of my eye
seems a snapshot,
lurid, rapid, garish, grouped,
heightened from life,
yet paralyzed by fact.
All's misalliance.
Yet why not say what happened?

In her article "Intimacy and Agency in Robert Lowell's ''Day by Day''," Reena Sastri notes that critical response to the book has been mixed, stating that during the initial publication of the book, some critics considered the book "a failure" while other critics, like Helen Vendler and Marjorie Perloff, considered it a success. She also notes that in reviews of Lowell's ''Collected Poems'' in 2003, ''Day by Day'' received mixed responses or was ignored by reviewers. Sastri herself argues that the book is under-appreciated and misunderstood. The book has received significant critical attention from Helen Vendler who has written about the book in essays and in her book ''Last Looks, Last Books: Stevens, Plath, Lowell, Bishop, Merrill'' (2010). In her essay "Robert Lowell's Last Days and Last Poems," she defended the book from attacks following its publication in reviews like the one written by the poet

Donald Hall Donald Andrew Hall Jr. (September 20, 1928 – June 23, 2018) was an American poet, writer, editor and literary critic. He was the author of over 50 books across several genres from children's literature, biography, memoir, essays, and includin ...

in which Hall called the book a failure, writing that he thought the book was "as slack and meretricious as ''Notebook'' and ''History'' which preceded it."Vendler, Helen, "Robert Lowell's Last Days and Last Poems." ''Robert Lowell: A Tribute''. Edited by Rolando Anzilotti. Pisa: Nistri-Lischi, 1979. 156-171. Vendler argued that most critics of the book were disappointed because Lowell's last book was so much different from any of his previous volumes, abandoning ambitious metaphors and political engagement for more personal snapshots. She wrote, "Now owellhas ended is career in ''Day by Day'', as a writer of disarming openness, exposing shame and uncertainty, offering almost no purchase to interpretation, and in his journal-keeping, abandoning conventional structure, whether rhetorical or logical. The poems drift from one focus to another; they avoid the histrionic; they sigh more often than they expostulate. They acknowledge exhaustion; they expect death." She praises some of Lowell's descriptions, particularly of

impotence Erectile dysfunction (ED), also called impotence, is the type of sexual dysfunction in which the penis fails to become or stay erect during sexual activity. It is the most common sexual problem in men.Cunningham GR, Rosen RC. Overview of mal ...

, depression, and old age.

Posthumous publications

In 1987, Lowell's longtime editor, Robert Giroux, edited Lowell's ''Collected Prose''. The collection included Lowell's book reviews, essays, excerpts from an unfinished autobiography, and an excerpt from an unfinished book, tentatively titled ''A Moment in American Poetry''. Lowell's ''Collected Poems'', edited by Frank Bidart and David Gewanter, was published in 2003. The ''Collected Poems'' was a very comprehensive volume that included all of Lowell's major works with the exception of ''Notebook 1967-1968'' and ''Notebook''. However, many of the poems from these volumes were republished, in revised forms, in ''History'' and ''For Lizzie and Harriet''. Soon after the publication of ''The Collected Poems'', ''The Letters of Robert Lowell'', edited by Saskia Hamilton, was published in 2005. Both Lowell's ''Collected Poems'' and his ''Letters'' received positive critical responses from the mainstream press.

Tributes

In 2001, the alternative rock band

They Might Be Giants They Might Be Giants (often abbreviated as TMBG) is an American alternative rock band formed in 1982 by John Flansburgh and John Linnell. During TMBG's early years, Flansburgh and Linnell frequently performed as a duo, often accompanied by a ...

wrote and recorded a song called "Robert Lowell" which uses Lowell's poem "Memories of West Street and Lepke" as the basis for the lyrics. Lowell's friendship with Elizabeth Bishop was the subject of the play ''Dear Elizabeth'' by

Sarah Ruhl Sarah Ruhl (born January 24, 1974) is an American playwright, professor, and essayist. Among her most popular plays are ''Eurydice'' (2003), ''The Clean House'' (2004), and ''In the Next Room (or the Vibrator Play)'' (2009). She has been the reci ...

which was first performed at the Yale Repertory Theater in 2012. Ruhl used ''Words in Air: The Complete Correspondence Between Elizabeth Bishop and Robert Lowell'' as the basis for her play. Lowell was a featured subject in the 2014 HBO documentary '' The 50 Year Argument'' about ''

'' which Lowell and his second wife, Elizabeth Hardwick, were both involved in founding. Although Lowell was not involved with editing the ''review,'' he was a frequent contributor. Lowell is featured in voice-over, photographs, video, and Derek Walcott reads from an essay on Lowell that Walcott published in ''The New York Review of Books'' after Lowell's death.Hayes, Dade
''Review: Scorsese Hits the Books with HBO's The 50 Year Argument.''
Retrieved from www.forbes.com

Bibliography

*'' Land of Unlikeness'' (1944) *''

'' (1946) *'' The Mills of The Kavanaughs'' (1951) *''

'' (1959) *'' Phaedra (translation)'' (1961) *''Imitations'' (1961) *''Nathaniel Hawthorne, 1804-1864'' (limited edition keepsake of centenary commemoration of Hawthorne's death), Ohio State University Press (1964) *'' For the Union Dead'' (1964) *''

'' (1965) *''The Achievement of Robert Lowell: A Comprehensive Selection of His Poems'', edited and introduced by William J. Martz, Scott, Foresman (1966) *''Near the Ocean'' (1967) *''R. F. K., 1925-1968'' privately printed limited edition (1969) *''Notebook 1967-1968'' (1969) (revised and expanded as ''Notebook'', 1970) *''The Voyage & other versions of poems of Baudelaire'' (1969) *''

'' (translation) (1969) *''Poesie, 1940-1970'' (English with Italian translations), Longanesi (Milan), (1972) *''History'' (1973) *''For Lizzie and Harriet'' (1973) *''The Dolphin'' (1973) *''Selected Poems'' (1976) (Revised Edition, 1977) *''Day by Day'' (1977) *''The Oresteia of Aeschylus'' (1978) *''Collected Prose'' (1987) *''Collected Poems'' (2003) *''Selected Poems'' (2006) (Expanded Edition)

References

External links

Robert Lowell Papers
at the

Harry Ransom Center The Harry Ransom Center (until 1983 the Humanities Research Center) is an archive, library and museum at the University of Texas at Austin, specializing in the collection of literary and cultural artifacts from the Americas and Europe for the pur ...

Audio recordings of Robert Lowell
from the

Woodberry Poetry Room The George Edward Woodberry Poetry Room is a special collections room of the library system at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Overview Named for literary critic and poet George Edward Woodberry, the Woodberry Poetry Room was fou ...

* *
''A Mania For Phrases''. The Voices and Visions Series (Robert Lowell Episode).
New York Center for Visual History, 1988.

* ttp://www.english.uiuc.edu/maps/poets/g_l/lowell/lowell.htm Articles on Lowell at Modern American Poetry, University of Illinois Accessed 2010-09-11 * {{DEFAULTSORT:Lowell, Robert 1917 births 1977 deaths 20th-century American male writers 20th-century American poets American Poets Laureate American anti-war activists American conscientious objectors American people of Dutch descent American people of English descent American people of German-Jewish descent Burials in New Hampshire Converts to Roman Catholicism Formalist poets Harvard College alumni Iowa Writers' Workshop faculty Jonathan Edwards family Kenyon College alumni Livingston family McLean Hospital patients National Book Award winners Obie Award recipients People with bipolar disorder Poets from Massachusetts Prisoners and detainees of the United States federal government Pulitzer Prize for Poetry winners Schuyler family St. Mark's School (Massachusetts) alumni The New York Review of Books University of Iowa faculty Writers from Boston Members of the American Academy of Arts and Letters