Lowell, Robert (Vol. 4) - Lowell, Robert 1917–
Lowell, Robert 1917–
Lowell is one of America's foremost contemporary poets. One of the most striking qualities of all his work has been the intensity of his moral and political concern for American civilization. He is also a playwright and the author of a book of "imitations." (See also Contemporary Authors, Vols. 9-12, rev. ed.)
[Lowell's] poems have been offered to us, over the years, in several contexts. For a few years we were advised to consider him a major Catholic poet, and this gave us—depending upon our attitude to Catholicism—either a stick with which to beat the poems or a pilgrim's staff to help us reach them. Either way it was a temporary facility. We have also been told to think of the poems, especially the early ones in Lord Weary's Castle, as acts of violence directed against all the forces of constriction wherever the poet feels them—especially those associated with his own New England ancestors, guardians of a...
[The entire page is 11161 words long]
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