Robert Lowell: Bibliography 1939-1959, with an illustrative critique The Harvard community has made this article openly available. Please share how this access benefits you. Your story matters Citation Staples, Hugh B. 1959. Robert Lowell: Bibliography 1939-1959, with an illustrative critique. Harvard Library Bulletin XIII (2), Spring 1959: 292-318. Citable link https://nrs.harvard.edu/URN-3:HUL.INSTREPOS:37363728 Terms of Use This article was downloaded from Harvard University’s DASH repository, and is made available under the terms and conditions applicable to Other Posted Material, as set forth at http:// nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:dash.current.terms-of- use#LAA Robert Lowell: Bibliography 1939-1959; with an Illustrative Critique ODERT Lo,vELLts \Vork has no,v reached a stature and con1- plcxit}7 that ,varrant an attempt to establish it~ chronolog3r and d eve]opmen t. In the t\ velve )rears sine c the exce lien ce of his ear1 y verse_ ,vas rcco gnizcd by- the l1u Iitzer a,vard,· Lo"'clrs style has undergone important changes~ and the stages in his progress to~;vardpoetic n1-a.rnrity·a.re marked hy the 1951 A1ills of the · l(avnnaugbs and the recent volume, Lif Studies,, ,vhich presents the ,vork of the last six years. In spite of resemblances to Eliot, Auden, and Hopkins, he o,vcs allegiance to no specific school He is consid- ered to be 21nong the )roungest of the ~middlegeneration' h)r Ci-ardi and EHiott, and he is the oldest of the tne\v poets'. recently anthol- ogized by lJ~ll, Pack, and Siinpso11.1 At forty·-nvo'"Lo,vell continues to explore n e,v tcchniq u cs and subjects. Th n s~partly b eca use the di- rc ction and quality of his poetic developn1entarc still to be determined, and partly because of the difficulty of so1ne of his best poen1~J judg- n1ents on his total poetic achieven1entremain tentative and incomplete . .i\1ost of Lo,vclrs earliest verse appeared in his fir.st book, 1944, the no,v nearly unobtainable Ln11dof Unlikeness. Critic,;sof this volu1nc confined th ctn sclvest for the 111ost part 1 to comn1cn ting on the con- trollc d violence of his imagery, and on the ahnost apocalyptic energy of his dominant thetne: the inadequacy of Ne,v England Calvinism vie,ved from the perspective of a faith both Catho1ic and idiosyncratic .. Tlte religious motifs, together ,vith a deve1opinginterest in historical and n1ytho1ogical subjects, ,vcre displayed in his .succeeding poetry. z\1ostof this, gathered fron1 various nla.gazinesand revie,vs and sorne- ti1ncs considerably revised, appeared in Lord }VenryJs Castle in 1946. In the follo\ving year, l'"'o,vell,von the Pulitzer prize for poetry, and in 1950 hts international reputation ,vas enhanced by the publicatioi1 of 1 John · Ciard i~ ed .1 Al;d-Cern tur y A nuri can P o-ets(New York,. r 9 5o); George P Elliott~ ed.l Fifteen Afod ern A 'lnerican I' oets (N evit Yor k1 19s 6) ; Donf-1.l d Hali Roher t Pac kl nd Lou is Simpson, eds., New Poets of Eng/and and A u1erica ( N e,v York, 1957) I Harvard University - Houghton Library / Harvard University. Harvard Library bulletin. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Library. Volume XIII, Number 2 (Spring 1959) Robert Lowell: Bibliograpby and Critique 29 3 Poeuts:1!)38-194 !) in England.~ A shift a,va }Tfrom the lyric mode of nn1chof the earlier poetry in the direction of the dran1atic, already pre- :figuredjn such poem5 as 'Ilet\veen the Porch and the A.ltart and 'The Death of the Sheriff/ reached a much fuller expression in the title poem of Tbe A1illrof the l(avauaugbs., 1951. In the recent Life Studies lJo,veli's interest in historical thcn1cs js evidenced in only one poern, 1The Banker's Daughter'; n1ost of the verse in the 11e,vvolume is of an j n tenscl y pcr.son a 1, se If-analytical, e vcn confessional ch aracter.. In a vivid, flexiblestyle thgt retains the force of his earlier 1nanner ,vithout its obscurity., Lo\ve 11 in his 1atest po ctf) 7 seeks to re assess his child- hood experiences ,vith the perspective of n1aturityt and to analyze his familjal relationships in the recent past and the present. Thus, ,vhere Lo,vell's earlier ,vork often concerned itself ,vith rcv- elatj on s of a philosophical and rcli gi o us-n atnre, his disclosures no,v focus on his o,vn personality· and career. At such a turning point, and nt the beginning of his third decade -asan in1portant figure in contem- porary American poetry., a prclin1ina ry·survc y-of his tota I achievement tnay .seetn appropriate. The appended bibliography is intended to have a nvo-f old purpose: to prO\'jdc u chronological ordering of the first nvcnt} 7 years of l...io1velrspoetic activity, and to furnish an aid to a ft~ller understanding of his intention and technjt1ue~Additionally, it includes a Jistingof the significant criticisn1 of his ,vork in America a.nd England.. 5 Anthologic-al references have been included for the follo,ving rea- sons: they offer a rough index to Lo,vclrs reputation; and they reprc~ sent a kind of rudimentary criticism jn that they presun1eto offer only the best of his poems. \ It is hopcd 1 furthern1orc.,that this bibliography ,vill not only pro- vide a chronological recordJ but 1,.v-illalso direct attention to the dif- ferent versions of the individual poc1ns. Lo\vell) ,vjth a perfcctionist,s dc~ication to his era£ tt has very of ten revised previously pu blishcd \Vork.. In some instances, a co1nparison of the · several variants is of The yc::1-r'193 8, in the tide of this volume apparc:nt1yrefers to the date of coin- position of the earliest poems~ Lo,,Tdrs :first poem v:as not published until 1939. s A f u1 l survey of translations of poems and of er j tical stud ics in foreign ]a nguag:cs has not proved f casih le il t the pre.sent tirn c. 1\1en tio n Jnay be made here,. ho,vevcr, of Rolando A nzilocti~s Rober/ Lo-well: I'oesie- (FJorence! 195 5 ) 11 \\·hich indud~s t.r:msla- tions of a number of Lo,.vclrs earlier poems into Italianp -o.nintroductory essay, .and a list of Italian critical articks on Lo\vdl. Prof.cssor AnzHotti has recently .sent n1e a su pplcn)cn tary list i ndud ing fi \'e c1ddj tionu l ~ri tical arti des, t hre:e ne\\T translations into 1t~lian, and one in to French. Harvard University - Houghton Library / Harvard University. Harvard Library bulletin. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Library. Volume XIII, Number 2 (Spring 1959) ;z94 Har·vard Library Bulletin considerable help in nnderstandiog both the circun1stanccs of the poem and its n1caning, and offers iosights into the poet 1s n1ethod.. As an cxan1pleof the \vay in ,vhich this kind of bibliographical study· can provide n key to the unlocking of a difficult poc1111 I should like to consider Lo,vell's ,vel1-kno\vn poemt 'Colloquy in Black Rock., 1 ..his- poe1n has three published versions., ,vhich appear successively in the Sewnnee Re-vie·w (Autu1nn 1944), Lord ll 1 enry"'rCastle (1946), -and the English volun1c,I'oe1us: 193$-1 J49 ( 1950). The n1ost fan1iliar of these i~ the version in L.ord Jf1 eary's Cartle't,vhich is reprinted in half a dozen anthologies: CoJloquy in Bfack Rock Here the jnck-hammer jabs into the occnn; lvly heart. you. race and stagger and dcn1and Jvlore blood-gangs for your nigger-brass percussion sT Till I, the stunned n1nchin e of your d cvotion, C1anging upon this cy1nbalof a hand, 5 An1 ratded scre\v and footloose. All discussions End jn the 1nud-:Aatdetritus of death. i\1y heart, beat faster, faster. Jn Black IVlud H ungarjan ,vo rkmen give their hlood For the martyre Stephen 1 \\Tho ,vas stoned to death. 10 B]ack l\1ud. a name to conjure ,vith: 0 mud For , ·vaterm elons gutted to the crus r, i\1ud for the mo1e-tide harbort n1ud for mouse, iv{ud for the annorcd ]Jicsel fishing tubs that thud A year and a day to ,·vind and ddei the dust 15 ls on this skipping heart that shakes n1y house, House of our Savior ,vho ,vas hanged till death. i\-ly heart, ueat fastert faster. In Black i\1ud Stephen the martyre ,va s broken do, vn to blood: Our ransom is the rubble of his death. 20 Christ ,valks on the black ,va ter.. In Illa ck J\-iud Darts the kingfisher. On Corpus Christi, henrt, O\•cr the drun1-beat of Sr. Stephenis choir I hear him, Stupor A1undi,and the n1ud Flies f ro1n his hunching ,vjngs and beak-my heart, 25 The blue kingfisher dives on you in Jire. It is perhaps not too 1nuch to say-that on a first reading the 1ncan~ ing of this poen1 is not inuncdiatcly available to usr "\i\1e are ourselves Harvard University - Houghton Library / Harvard University. Harvard Library bulletin. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Library. Volume XIII, Number 2 (Spring 1959) Robert Lo-well: Bibliograpby and Critique 295 .son1e,vhatrattled by the disruptive force of the opening stanza. It takes a. little ti n1c to get our b car ings; e vcn the physical setting ren1ain s ob- sc_ure until ,ve realize that the ijack-ham1ncr~ of the first line is the 1Black Rock' of the title., ,vhich co the poetic vision appe2rs to he sn1ashing at the oncoming v.7aves.