Robert Lowell's Life and Work: Damaged Grandeur (Poets On Poetry) - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 047206570X ISBN 13: 9780472065707

Publisher: University of Michigan Press, 1995

Synopsis

Robert Lowell was regarded by many as the greatest American poet of his generation. "Somehow or other...in the middle of our worst century so far," his contemporary and friend Elizabeth Bishop wrote, "we have produced a magnificent poet." The scion of a distinguished New England family, Lowell crafted his poetry to comment on the nation's fate and even to influence the course of American politics. Along with Anne Sexton, John Berryman, and Sylvia Plath, he was a pioneer in the movement later known as Confessional Poetry, and his political gestures were often timely and controversial: his refusal of President Johnson's invitation to the White House came to symbolize the opposition of writers and intellectuals to the Vietnam War. Since Lowell's death in 1977, his reputation has suffered a decline; yet arguably no poet living today writes with the same authority, the same sense of grandeur.

Robert Lowell's Life and Work: Damaged Grandeur is a critical memoir by acclaimed poet Richard Tillinghast, a friend and student of Lowell's in the 1960s. Tillinghast shows how Lowell's gift for the grand gesture was tragically intertwined with the manic-depressive illness that afflicted him throughout his adult life- hence the "damaged grandeur" of the title. This book offers a radical re- examination of Lowell's poetic career and argues for the restoration of this complex and troubled poet to a pre-eminent position in American letters.

Richard Tillinghast's books of poetry include Our Flag was Still There, Sewanee in Ruins, The Knife and Other Poems, and Sleep Watch. He writes regularly for The New York Times, Atlantic Monthly, and The New Republic. He is Professor Emeritus of English, University of Michigan, and is the recipient of a fellowship from the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation.

About this title

From the Back Cover:

This critical memoir by acclaimed poet Richard Tillinghast explores Robert Lowell's profound influence on the course of American poetry and politics--his role in the rise of Confessional Poetry; his involvement with figures of power and controversial opposition to the Vietnam War; his gift, both artistic and political, for the grand gesture. Showing how this gift tragically intertwined with the manic-depressive illness that marked the 'damaged grandeur' of Lowell's adult-life, Tillinghast radically reexamines Lowell's career and argues for the restoration of this complex, troubled poet to a preeminent position in American letters.

About this edition

• Publisher: University of Michigan Press
• Publication date: 1995
• ISBN 10: 047206570X
• ISBN 13: 9780472065707
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 136
• Editor: Tillinghast Richard W.