Contemporary Literary Criticism by Lowell

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Table of Contents

Introduction
Literary Genre
Style
Common Themes
Criticism
References

Introduction

Robert Lowell is one of the most prominent poets of America after World War Two. He is called the father of the confessional poetry. Lowell had led a depressive and turbulent life. He had spent most of his time treated as a mental patient. Being a heavy drunkard he took refuge in writing which he also took as means of earning a living. He married thrice and led a disturbed life. The literary figures who influenced his work included Tate, Ransom, Robert Frost, Browning, Hawthorne and Melville. His literary fame came with the winning of awards such as the Pulitzer Prize, National Book Award, Harriet Monroe Poetry Award and the Guinness Poetry Award. The aim of this paper is to provide a brief sketch of the poet. I intend to discuss the genre in which Lowell has excelled the most. I would also like to discuss his literary style and common themes. Towards the end I will discuss the views of other literary figures about his poetry.

In an online article Contemporary Literary Criticism (2009) it is stated that Lowell was born in 1917 in the family of intellectuals that included prominent names such as poet and critic James Russell Lowell and the poet Amy Lowell. He began his writing career in school days where he was taught by the poet Richard Eberhart. He continued to write throughout his life and accepted it as a mean to earn a livelihood. He died in 1977 and left some unfinished work behind.

Literary Genre

In Robert Lowells book, Jeffrey Meyers (1988) believes that Lowells reputation as a literary figure developed in four stages. His fame as a poet reached its height when he received the Pulitzer Prize for Lord Wearys Castle in 1947. He won the National Book award in 1960 after releasing the work Life Studies. The award confirmed and further helped him develop his reputation as a poet. He influenced many future poets to write confessional poetry. In the mid 60s Lowell became prominent with his protest against the Vietnam War. He marched with Norman Mailer towards the Pentagon and campaigned with Senator Eugene McCarthy. He also refused to attend the White House Art Festival. These activities made him a notable person and in 1970s when he was producing literary work more in quantity rather than in quality, he was already known as a celebrity and a great poet of his time. His prominent literary works include Land of Unlikeness (1944), Lord Wearys Castle (1946), The Mills of the Kavanaughs (1949), Life Studies (1959), and The Dolphin (1973).

Lowell has also written for theatre. His trio of plays titled The Old Glory was based on the stories by Nathanial Hawthorne and Melville. Lowell accepted the fact that he used the stage to talk about his political views. He said in an interview I think what I have written is almost tame compared to what has happened&Weve just had one of the most disastrous wars we have ever fought, in Vietnam, and one of the most disastrous Presidents who has ever served, Nixon (Pg. 6).

Lowell has also translated the works from Latin and Greek languages. In doing so he stated that he aimed to bring into English something that didnt exist in English before and to discover what English language lacked (Pg. 6).

Style

An online article, Contemporary Literary Criticism, (2009) states that Lowells early poetic style was inspired by literary masters such as Tate and Ransom. His early poetry is a reflection of lots of religious symbols and motifs. This is evident in his books The Land of Unlikeness and Lord Wearys Castle. His collection of poems The Mills of the Kavanaughs was written under the influence of Robert Frost and Robert Browning. As such we see dramatic monologues, obscure symbolism, verse translations and rhetoric. This experiment is indicative of Lowells search for new poetic form. His collection Life Studies is called a major breakthrough from being formal to being personal. The poems in this collection are based on his own life experiences. In these poems the influence of William Carlos William becomes prominent with the use of free verse and colloquial tone. The same confessional mood about his personal experiences is also evident in For the Union Dead (Contemporary Literary Criticism, 2009).

Lowell has also experimented with writing loose translations of work by Homer, Sappho, Rainer Maria Rilke, Francios Villon and Baudelaire. Epic style has been adopted in the Walking Early Sunday Morning. The poems have been written as unrhymed sonnets loosely structured around the four seasons of the year. The poems are an amalgamation of historical observations, journal entries, news and private thoughts. The same style of unrhymed sonnets was continued in For Lizzie and Harriet, History and The Dolphin. These poems also carry verse portraits of historical figures such as Martin Luther King Jr., Juvenal and Robespierre. However in the last volume Day By Day Lowell has left the unrhymed sonnet style and gone back to the old style found in the Life Studies (Contemporary Literary Criticism, 2009).

His posthumous publication Collected Prose consisted of autobiographical sketches, interviews and essays on various poets and their works. The work was unfinished (Contemporary Literary Criticism, 2009).

Common Themes

Robert Lowell became a very prominent poet of the 60s decade. The above mentioned article (2009) states that Lowells initial poems dealt with the themes related to Christianity and history. Poems such as in The Land of Unlikeness and Lord Wearys Castle are an example in this regard. The Quacker Graveyard in Nantucket is an elegy as well as a criticism on corruption and loss of innocence in America.

According to Jay Martin (in Axelrods and Deeses book) (1993) he was preoccupied with death and which is reflected in most of his poems. Death, nothingness, loss and mourning are the most prominent themes found in his poetry. Basically the childhood experiences of grief related to his parents relationship with each other and with himself led him to psychiatrists who declared him a schizophrenic. Lowell began to write about these experiences in his poetry. His autobiographical poem Night Sweat is an example of his life under the shadow of death. He writes Always inside me is the child who died/ Always inside me is his will to die. The poem is a reflection of his relationship with death. His mental condition was a subject of gossip in the literary circles. To him poetry appeared as a substitute to mother and he took elegiac themes more often in his poetry. His poem In Memory of Arthur Winslow is an elegy about his maternal grandfather whom he did not admire but his mother did. Another short poem Mary Winslow is about his mothers relative who was very demanding in her life. The poem describes the scene just after her death when the body cools. The poet compares and criticizes the woman stating that a person so demanding in life looked ridiculous after death. My Last Afternoon with Uncle Devereux Winslow is another elegy about his mothers brother who died at a young age. The poem is mixed with images of death and a young boys love for his grandfather. He talks about his Uncle who was closing camp for the winter and Uncle Devereux would blend to &one color. An online article (2009) titled Contemporary Literary Criticism states that 91 Revere Street is another example of his chaotic childhood.

Criticism

Steven Gould Axelrod (1993) comments about Lowell in the following words: one knows from every word that Lowell ever wrote that poetry was central to his existence: Nothing is real until set down in words. W. H. Auden in his essay on modern American verse defines American poetry as individualistic, democratic and Puritan. On the other hand the British poetry has been defined as more traditional, inhibiting a universe with a familiar face. In this back ground Auden states that The only Americans I can possibly imagine as British are minor poets with a turn for light verse like Lowell and Holmes; and the only British poets who could conceivably have been American are eccentrics such like Blake and Hopkins. Bruce Michelson (1983) comments about Lowells poetry in the following words: Unless we can locate clear, coherent, valid principles at the center of his art, all efforts to speak of Lowell in the usual ways, all discussions of alienation, dynamic ambivalence, apostasy, Calvinism, falling empires and played-out bloodlines may evaporate in time. And we may, consequently, lose not only our sense of Lowell but of others, confessional and otherwise, who have worked in the modes he pioneered.

To conclude Robert Lowell has proved himself as a notable poet of the post World War II era. He has given a new direction to the American poetry with the introduction of confessional poetry that has opened way for the future poets to talk about their personal experiences in poetry. Although he has left some unfinished work due to his death he is still remembered as a great poet of American literature.

References

Axelrod, S. G. Deese, H. Robert Lowell, Essays on the Poetry, Cambridge University Press, (1993).Pg. 26-51.

Lowell, R. Introduction: Contemporary Literary Criticism. Ed. Jeffrey W. Hunter. Vol. 124. Gale Cengage, (2000). Web.

Lowell, R., Meyers, J. Robert Lowell, interviews and memoirs, University of Michigan Press, (1988). Pg. 1-6.

Michelson, B. Lowell Versus Lowell, The Virginia Quarterly Review. (1983). Pg. 22-39. Web.

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