[lit-ideas] Re: Lowelliana
- From: "Lawrence Helm" <lawrencehelm@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 21 Nov 2014 12:48:39 -0800
JL,
I reread "Sailing Home from Rapallo" and wasn't as disappointed as when I first
read it, probably because my expectations weren't as high. It's okay -- clever
-- worth reading perhaps.
I also reread "91 Revere Street." I don't really see his mother's influence in
this piece. I do see the influence of Commander Billy Harkness, his father's
friend. Lowell writes, "The man who seems in my memory to sit under old
Mordecai's portrait is not my father, but Commander Billy -- the Commander
after Father had thrown in his commission. There Billy would sit glowing,
perspiring, bragging. Despite his rowdiness, he even then breathed the power
that would make him a vice-admiral and hero in World War II."
I attempted to find this hero of World War II Vice-Admiral Billy Harkness using
Google and failed. Wouldn't someone like that have an article written about
him some place? Could Lowell have made him up?
Lawrence
"Mother travelled first-class in the hold; her Risorgimento black and gold
casket was like Napoleon's at the Invalides." R. L.
Thanks for your opinions, L. Helm.
I found an interesting wiki entry for Lowell. Inter alia, it reads:
"Lowell's mother, Charlotte Winslow Lowell, in 1915. Along with Lowell's father
and grandfather, she is a central subject in Life Studies, specifically in the
poems "Sailing Home From Rapallo," "91 Revere Street," and "Commander Lowell""
I'm not sure about 91 Revere Street -- the thing is so specific -- but I can't
think of Rapallo without thinking Beerbohm and the whole unspecificity of it
all.
Once a visitor asked Sir Max for his complete address. He replied, "Oh, Sir
Max Behrbohm, Rapallo".
When the visitor asked if that was enough, he said, "Surely, there's only one
Rapallo."
Cheers,
Speranza
Sailing Home from Rapallo: Gentle satire -- Warm tone -- Alliteration, sensory
imagery, simile, evocative verbs and adjectives Direct address to Mother and
the description of their journey home to New England provides insight into
family and his sense of loss ‘Your nurse …. cheeks’, ‘the whole shoreline … our
liner’.
Irony -- Historical context/public & personal -- Wider political context
-- Contrast: Lowell avoids sentimentality through reductive irony. ‘Mother
travelled ….Napoleon’s.
Capitalisation Her lying in state, name, their destination, and the inclusion
of his father suggest the futility of their pretentions and their loveless
marriage. ‘our family cemetery.. drifts. ‘The only ‘unhistoric’..
here,’ ‘In grandiloquent… LOVEL./ The corpse/was wrapped like panetone in
Italian tinfoil’.
---
In a message dated 11/21/2014 9:09:50 A.M. Eastern Standard Time,
lawrencehelm@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx writes: "I’ve wearied of T.S. Eliot and turned to
another poet I haven’t been able to appreciate, Robert Lowell; except in
Lowell’
s case he doesn’t seem to have a loyal following. There are some though,
as I discovered from reading Modern Critical Views: Robert Lowell. As with
Eliot, critics want to invest him with intentions he probably never harbored.
One of his books, can’t recall the name, seemed to present some grand scheme –
according a critic whose name I can’t recall either – but then Lowell began
revising the poems as though that’s all they were, poems, and not part of the
scheme – and the scheme suffered as a result J.
In MCVs is an essay on Lowell’s book Land of Unlikeness. What’s this, I
thought? I’ve never heard of that book (I actually had but I’d forgotten). I
checked Amazon. Two copies are listed, one for $1200 and the other for $4500.
I checked Ian Hamilton’s biography of Lowell (which I’d read in
2002) and found that Land of Unlikeness was never quite published because
Lowell kept revising the poems and was never happy with it. 250 copies were
printed for reviewers however. Lowell subsequently cannibalized the poems in
the book – ten of which went into Lord Weary’s Castle – sent to Randall
Jarrell in 1945 for his review. I had a copy of Lord Weary’s Castle – the
best thing he wrote in my apparently inadequate opinion. Randall thought it
very good but Lowell threw off poetic constraints and swung over to William
Carlos Williams style of writing – sort of -- and then became “ confessional.”
– But how much can any of us confess and have it mean what we think it means?
Lowell and two other confessors, Sylvia Plath and Ann Sexton remain
mysteries. Was Lowell a Manic-Depressive, bi-polar in the kinder-gentle
parlance of today, or just a nasty piece of work? Did he envy those who
poured themselves so completely into their poetry that nothing remained, try
it, and became changed into the role he set for himself? I sent for another
copy of Lord Weary’s Castle as well as some volumes I hadn’t read – but not
Land of Unlikeness. With critics in Bloom’s MCV saying he is bloody
marvelous, my previous opinion must be wrong.
------------------------------------------------------------------
To change your Lit-Ideas settings (subscribe/unsub, vacation on/off, digest
on/off), visit www.andreas.com/faq-lit-ideas.html
---
This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software.
http://www.avast.com
Other related posts:
