Robert Lowell

Robert Lowell (1917-1977), American poet, noted for his lyric virtuosity, rich language, and social concern. A cousin of the distinguished intellectuals Amy, Percival, and Abbott Lowell, he was born on March 1, 1917, in Boston and educated at Harvard University and Kenyon College. Lowell suffered religious doubt and temporarily converted to Roman Catholicism, was briefly imprisoned for refusing to serve in World War II, spent time in a mental hospital, and took part in later anti-war and civil rights movements. He had a remarkable ability to express in his poetry both objective and subjective views of the turmoil of the contemporary world. Lowell died on September 12, 1977, in New York.

Lowell's first volume of poems, Land of Unlikeness (1944), reflected the disturbing effects of World War II. The Pulitzer Prize-winning Lord Weary's Castle (1946) contains his highly acclaimed poem “Colloquy at Black Rock”, centred on a Roman Catholic feast. The chief long narrative poem in Mills of the Kavanaughs (1951) is a Greek legend set in New England. Life Studies (1959), which received the National Book Award, revealed his inner torments. Later poems in For the Union Dead (1964) and Near the Ocean (1967) are more political. Other works of poetry are Imitations (1961), which won the Bollingen Prize, and The Dolphin (1973), which won another Pulitzer Prize. Lowell's trilogy of plays, The Old Glory (1965), is a historical survey of American culture. He adapted the ancient Greek dramas Phaedra (1963) and Prometheus Bound (1969).