[lit-ideas] On the non-existence of Vice-Admiral Billy Harkness
- From: "Lawrence Helm" <lawrencehelm@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: "Lit-Ideas " <Lit-Ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sat, 22 Nov 2014 06:43:59 -0800
The fact that there is no Vice-Admiral Billy Harkness changes everything -
everything in regard to the way I'm going to read Lowell from now on. When
I first read Life Studies - not so very long after it was published I was
appalled. His poems and 91 Revere seemed confessions of the most pathetic
sort: I'm the sick fellow I am because of my parents which you can see would
make anyone sick. But my view was completely wrong. Lowell made up
Commander Billy and I'm going to have to take Lowell seriously for a while
and if Richard Tillinghast is right, a lot longer.
http://www.newcriterion.com/articles.cfm/The-achievement-of-Robert-Lowell-16
11
Maybe Harold Bloom needs to be on the lookout for interesting new poets,
that's his job, or at least it was (he should be retired by now) but I
don't, but I did read a lot of poetry for many years & can't do anything
about that but if a poet is better than I used to think he was it is
monumental - well perhaps that's an exaggeration but highly interesting at
the very least. Although another explanation occurred to me: what if there
really was an original which became Billy Harkness because he was still
living and might take offense? That would be disappointing, but Tillinghast
is leading me to think not.
And who is Richard Tillinghast. I checked Amazon and if you want to buy a
new hard-back copy of his 1995 book Robert Lowell's Life and Work: Damaged
Grandeur (Poets on Poetry) it will cost you $2432.61 - suggesting perhaps
that there may not be huge numbers of people clamoring to buy his books. I
bought a used paperback edition for $5.03. I also bought a volume of his
poetry for $0.01 plus shipping. He is Irish and moves back and forth
between Ireland and New York.
Lawrence
---
This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software.
http://www.avast.com
Other related posts:
- » [lit-ideas] On the non-existence of Vice-Admiral Billy Harkness - Lawrence Helm
