Robert Lowell

We discussed the poetry of Robert Lowell in class today. Much of his poetry is categorized under “Confessional Poetry”. This is a particular sub-genre where the poet expresses much about his or herself, and often refers to himself rather than a narrator in poems. The subject matter is often bleak if not depressing. This style is sometimes seen as whiny, but it also wildy appreciated as transmuting emotions into art.

Lowell himself is a transitional figure. He often travels between confessional and impersonal. His poem, “Walking in the Blue” is definitely a confessional poem. This is a poem about Lowell’s stay at a mental institution. In the poem, he describes his feelings of isolation from the world, often relating them to some fish imagery. He describes himself and the other patients of “ossified young” meaning people who have become forever stuck in the mind-set that they were when they originally became mentally ill

Lowell’s poem “Skunk Hour” is also a confessional poem. In it he describes his own decline, as well as the decline of New England. On the surface things appear to be functional, but as we delve deeper we can see that they are not as they appear to be. Sea and fish imagery appear again in this poem, also describing Lowell’s isolation.

Lowell’s poem “For the Union Dead” is the most impersonal of all three of these poems. It is not confessional because of the distance between the reader and the speaker. The title suggests a elegy. This poem is about the tackiness of the modern world, and the questioning of the pasts sacrifice. There is a big contrast between the past and present, which gives it a sort of “Waste Land” quality. The content of the poem is the speakers sadness over the tearing down of an aquarium that he loved very much when he was a child. This shows the modern world as being physical and precarious. Lowell sticks to his fish imagery, giving connections to the emotions he is feeling. In the end the aquarium is turned into a parking lot, which states a lot about the present human state.