With the implementation of the exclusively heterosexual connotations of sexualr revolution^' in the 1970sromantic amorous arrangements. love seemed to take second place to lust, Dissatisfaction with the term but the AIDS crisis has helped it to make lover in its current sense suggests several a comeback. With the relentless propaga- alternatives, but these seem scarcely tion of the common coin of love through happier. Fiancd seems too old-fashioned, the mass media, gay men and lesbians and the implication that marriage will have inevitably internalized much of the follow is not appropriate for gay men and sentimental lore of heterosexual love, so lesbians. Paramour has acquired the nega- that there is now a genre of "romance" tive, judgmental connotation of a tempo- novels aimed specifically at this market. rary partner with purely physical inter- The popular psychologist Dorothy Ten- ests. An expression derived from sociology, nov attempted to introduce a new term, significant other, seems too long and pre- limerence, but it is unclear that this word tentious, while partner may imply a busi- -.ir: represents any conceptual advance; it is ness relationship, or conversely, a chance 2 - simply romantic love once again. Love, it participant in a one-nqht stand. Some seems, is a perennial theme, and one which have therefore proposed Life partner, an retains much of its mystery intact. expression now malung its way into obitu- aries as they increasingly disregard the BIBLIOGRAPHY.Edith Fischer, Amor taboo on mentioning the survivor of a und Eros: Eine Untersuchung des WortfeZdes "Liebs"im Lateinischen und homosexual couple arrangement. C!riechischen, Hildesheim: H. A. Latin recognized both amator, CeTstenberg, 1973; David M. Hillperin, "lover, paramour, devoted friend," and "Platonic EZOS and What Men Call amans, "loving one, sweatheart." In Eng- Love," Ancient Philosophy, 5 (1985], lish usage, French-derived amateur has 161-204; J. E. Rivers, Proust and the Art of Love, New York: Columbia University b&me specialized in the sense of a lover Press, 1980; Irving Singer, The Nature of of things (not persons), or a dilettante. Love, 3 vols., Chicago: Chicago Univer- sity Press, 1984-87. Wayne R. Dynes LOVER LOWELL,AMY LAWRENCE In today's homosexual usage the (1874-1925) term "lover" designates one's long-term American paet. Born into a dis- partner. If one is invited to a social event, tinguished and wealthy family in it would seem reasonable to ask "May I Brookline, Massachusetts, Lowell was bring my lover!" just as others would say educated privately. For a brief period she "May I bring my spouse?" Some have was associated with Ezra Pound, but broke objected to the word as placing too much with him to go her own way. In fact her emphasison the sexualside. Interestingly, imagist poetry is quite different from that a similar problem of designation occurs of Pound's circle. among unmarried heterosexual couples Lowell described herself in her who need aword to describe their opposite adolescent diary as "a great, rough, mascu- number in the dyad. line, strong thing." Lacking beauty in her In former times heterosexuals own perception, she confessed in that same recognized a pattern of relationship diary that "I cannot help adrnireing [sic] between lover and mistress for a bond not and generally falling in love with, extreme sanctioned by the law and without imply- beauty." Although she had very strong ing absolute fidehty. Neither homosexu- crushes on young males during that ado- als or lesbians ever seem to have adopted lescent period, it was her crushes on her the word mistress, which has retained female friends that appear to have first led LUCIAN 4 to her writing poetry; one of her earliest woman, underneath [whose] . . . bump- extant poems came out of her adolescent tious manner lies disappointment" (Win- crush on her girlfriend, "Louly W." field Townley Scott, New England Quar- Amy Lowell's first publishedvol- terly, 1935),is not borne out by the body of ume of poems, A Dome ofMany Coloured Lowell's poetry. The preponderance of her Glass (1912),contains a number of seem- experiential poems suggest a life and a ingly homoerotic poems, addressed to two relationship that were extremely happy women. But the most significant body of and productive. Typically, in "Thorn her experiential love poemswas written to Pierce" Lowell talks about theworld being and for the actress Ada Russell. dark and glazed, but another woman gives Amy Lowell first encounteredAda to her "fire,/And love to comfort, and Russell in 1909when the actress was trav- speech to bind,/And the common things of eling on a New England tour of Dawn of a morning and evening./And the light of Tomorrow. The two met again in Boston, your lantern." In "Christmas Eve" she in 1912, when Russell, playing the lead in tells the other woman, "You have lifted The Deep Purple, appeared as a guest of my eyes, and made me whole,/And given honor at the Lunch Club, to which Lowell, me purpose, and held me faced/ Toward then half-heatedly living the life of a the horizon you once had placed/ As my Boston society woman, belonged. They aim's grand measure." "A Decade," the spent part of the summer of 1912together, poem that celebrates the first ten years of and for the next two years the poet tried to their acquaintance, concludes "1 am com- convince the actress to live with her. This pletely nourished." Lowell admitted to courtship is reflected in approximately 20 her acquaintances, such as John Living- poems of Sword Blades and Poppy Seed ston Lowes, that such love poems were (1914).Ada finally yielded to Amy's pur- about Ada. suit in the spring of 1914. She quit the In a scurrilous study published stage and went to live with the poet in her one year after Amy Lowell's death, Clem- Brookline mansion, Sevenels, ostensibly ent Wood argued that Lowell was not a as her paid companion, but in fact as her good poet because many of her poems were mate. The two lived together until Amy's homosexual; therefore, they did not "word death in 1925. a common cry of many hearts." Lowell, he Several of Lowell's later volumes concluded, may qualify "as an impassioned contain love poems about therelationship singer of her own desires; and she may well between the two women, such as Pictures be laureate also of as many as stand beside of the Floating World (1919)and two post- her," but non-lesbian readers will find humous volumes, What's O'clock (1925) nothing in her verse (AmyLowell, 1926). and Ballads for Sale (1927).The 43 poems in the "Two Speak Together" section of BIBLIOGRAPHY. Lillian Faderman, "Warding off the Watch and Ward Pictures of a Floating World are the best Society: Amy Lowell's Lesbian Poetry," and most complete record of the love rela- Gay Books Bulletin, 1:2 (Spring 1979), tionship between Amy Lowell and Ada 23-27; Amy JeanCould, The World of Russell. Amy Lowell and the Imagist Movement, The usual critical observationthat New York: Dodd, Mead, 1975. Lowell was overweight and unmarried, and that her work is a "knell of personal LUCIAN frustration . . . an effort to hide the bare (CA.A.D. 120-C~.185) walls of the empty chambers of her heart Greek writer. From Samosata on . . ." (Harvey Allen, Saturday Review of the Euphrates, Lucian traveled widely as a Literature, 1927) and the exposure of the tutor and professional lecturer, delivering heart of "a girlish, pathetic, and lonely set pieces in Greek, though his native