Book contents
- Robert Lowell in Context
- Robert Lowell In Context
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Contributors
- Acknowledgments
- Abbreviations
- Introduction
- Part I Places
- Part II American Politics, American Wars
- Part III Some Literary Models
- Part IV Contemporaries
- Part V Life, Illness, and the Arts
- Part VI Reputation and New Contexts
- Chapter 21 Letters
- Chapter 22 Whiteness
- Chapter 23 Appropriation
- Chapter 24 “Raw” Poets
- Chapter 25 Lowell’s Influence
- Chapter 26 Language and Post-Language Poets
- Further Reading
- Index
Chapter 25 - Lowell’s Influence
from Part VI - Reputation and New Contexts
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 March 2024
- Robert Lowell in Context
- Robert Lowell In Context
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Contributors
- Acknowledgments
- Abbreviations
- Introduction
- Part I Places
- Part II American Politics, American Wars
- Part III Some Literary Models
- Part IV Contemporaries
- Part V Life, Illness, and the Arts
- Part VI Reputation and New Contexts
- Chapter 21 Letters
- Chapter 22 Whiteness
- Chapter 23 Appropriation
- Chapter 24 “Raw” Poets
- Chapter 25 Lowell’s Influence
- Chapter 26 Language and Post-Language Poets
- Further Reading
- Index
Summary
Robert Lowell’s influence has been pervasive. Two features of his writing, in particular, have been widely adopted and adapted: photographic imagery and the practice of quoting. Lowell’s photographic realism is the central trope in his autobiographical writing, and it became a lingua franca of the confessional and post-confessional poem in general. The influence appears in such later poets as Sylvia Plath, Robert Hayden, Li-Young Lee, Yusef Komunyakaa, Sharon Olds, and Frank Bidart. Lowell’s practice of inserting quoted texts and conversational tidbits by others within his own imaginative structures is a second highly influential feature of his writing. His method of sampling influenced or aligns with the work of such later poets as Bidart, Henri Cole, and Claudia Rankine. Lowell’s use of mimetic repetition (the photograph, the quote) continue to resonate in the way we write poetry and read it.
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- Robert Lowell In Context , pp. 272 - 283Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2024