A new book of poems by Pulitzer Prize Winning author of the
memorable Lord Weary's Castle is always a literary event. Since his
last book, The Mills of the Kavanaughs appeared in 1951 we have
heard nothing from this gifted poet. Now in Life Studies he gives
brief but scintillating glimpses of his life and experiences over
years that have offered far reaches, but at their end he is still
the Puritan (member of a renowned family), a Catholic convert, and
still reliving his relationships with Mother, Father, uncles and a
grandfather. And mentally he seems still to be beating against the
poles of introversion and release. The particulars of his poems
are, as always, "powerful, homely, grotesque but exactly
appropriate." His work is highly organized and intense. It still
has "thrust and density." And besides these familiar qualities,
there is a new and touching one in his sensitive handling of
personal relationships. When Lord Weary's Castle first appeared,
Lowell was compared with Auden. While his own niche is still
secure, this volume would not seem to bear out that promise. A fine
talent, which perhaps needs a broadened horizon. This is an
essential item for all lovers of poetic literature. (Kirkus
Reviews)
Life Studies was first published in 1959. 'In Life Studies the
pathos of the local colour of the past - of the lives and deaths of
his father and mother and grandfather and uncle, crammed full of
their own varied and placid absurdity - is the background that sets
off the desperate knife-edged absurdity of the jailed conscientious
objector among gangsters and Jehovah's witnesses, the private
citizen returning to his baby, older now, from the mental hospital.
He sees things as being part of history; if you say about his poor
detailedly eccentric, trust-fund Lowells: 'but they weren't,' he
can answer: 'They are now.'' Randall Jarrell
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