My Essay on Amy Lowell

This is an essay I wrote my Senior year, so go ahead be my English teacher, rip it apart some more. No not REALLY.

Poetry is a way of expressing ones self; it is how many people share their inner most feelings. In reading poetry one has a chance to see into the mind of the writer. That is what occurs when a person reads Amy Lowell's poetry. To understand this poetry one must understand Amy Lowell's life. Her obesity left her without a husband, while her parents' ill health took her out of school, and strained the relationships between parent and child. Many times Amy was alone in Sevenels(the Lowell's home, named after the SEVEN LowELLS); so for the majority of her life she sought love and friendship. This isolation is what produced Amy Lowell the poet. In this vast house, Amy discovered a volume of Leigh Hunt's "Imagination and Fancy; or, Selections from the English Poets." From here Amy Lowell discovered a new way to voice herself. With poetry Amy Lowell was able to describe the frustration, loneliness, and guilt that she felt. Even with this newly discovered tool however, Lowell was [incapable of expressing] herself using "the idiom and forms of the Romantic poets"; (Ruihley, Glenn Richard, The Thorn of A Rose: Amy Lowell reconsidered, Hamden, Connecticut: [Archeon books, 1975] 20) and so her first book of Victorian and Romantic poetry was a failure. Realizing that her type of poetry did not fit with the Romantics style, and that her topics of writing could not be realized using the Romantic style, Amy Lowell went to study Imagist poetry. This poetry allowed Amy to portray ideas that Romanticism never allowed her to do. With this new poetry Amy was able to write with emotion and express her true pain and loneliness. The reader sees and feels what Amy Lowell feels through the use of a scene in nature or the description of a seemingly innate object. The poetry style of Amy Lowell is not unlike that of another Imagist poet, Hilda Doolittle. However, the contents of both women's writings are totally different. Whereas, Hilda's writing is lighter, Amy's is dark, and sad. That is because poetry is a mirror into the poet's mind. Emily Dickinson's poetry deals with death and sadness. While John Donne's Poetry is romantic and satiric in his early poetry, while his latter poetry deals with morality and Christianity. Amy Lowell's poetry is that of a person who is outcast form society, and yearns for love. That is why in her poetry two themes emerge, one is the revolt against society, another is the love she had for Ada Russell. To bring out these themes, Amy creates a relationship between human beings and material forms.

At the age of seventeen Amy Lowell was forced to leave school to attend to her parents. This seeming tragedy was Amy's first experience with poetry. After the discovery of Leigh Hunt's book, Amy fell in love with poetry and studied Shelly and Keats extensively. She holds Shelly's atheistic views and is also a moon worshiper. While she admires Keats's style of writing, so much that she wrote a book on Keats. Critics in America called it one of the most in depth books ever written. However, England critics tend to disagree. Even with this passion for poetry Amy did not start writing and selling poetry until 1902, because of her parents' illness, and eventual death.

This poem was not only a poem on the brilliance of Elenora Duse's acting, but it was also a poem on what art was, and what it was meant to do. This type of art is what Amy wanted to achieve. She wrote of art:

After watching Elenora Duse, Amy Lowell realized what she wanted to achieve through her poetry. Though this poem was Lowell's inspiration, it never made it into her first book of poetry. Her first book was A Dome of Many Colored Glass, a volume of Romantic and Victorian poems. The book was a failure, and injured Amy's ego extremely. But even after a barrage of horrible reviews, she did not give up. Instead she went to study a "new poetry" in England, and ended up virtually taking over the band of Imagist poets. From there Amy returned to America and published Sword Blades and Poppy Seeds, a collection of Imagist poems. This collection of poems was treated differently, than her first volume, receiving the admiration of many of her once, bitterest of critics. The book's success was not entirely the result of her trip to England. But the trip was a major contributor to her education in poetry. Ruihley said that "...she had returned home with a new key to her own experience and the art of expressing it." The new poems that Amy wrote, gave the reader a fuller insight into her soul. However, these aspects that make Amy Lowell such a wonderful poet, also make her a target for many critics.

These beliefs were far from the truth. The poetry written by Lowell was full of her ideas, beliefs, passions, and grief. A central idea in her poetry is rebellion against society. One of her most famous works, "Patterns," has a theme against social constraints. The poem's speaker is a woman who has lost her husband in the war (a social constraint). As the woman walks through a flower garden, she remarks on the constraints of society. Two different symbols in the poem are the garden itself, and the clothing she wears. This is a common way in which Lowell brings out her themes. By using material objects, Amy portrays her theme, better than if she were to say what she felt about social constraints. Richard Benvenuto said of these two symbols, "The garden is nature pruned and arranged by man; the woman likewise is gorgeously arrayed and socially correct in whalebone and brocade." ( Amy Lowell, [Boston Twayne Publishing, c1985]) The woman is in opposition to the clothing and life she is put in. As she walks along the paths, she dreams of what her and her lover could do without the constraints of society. Here she wishes she could be like the flowers of the garden though they are a part of the garden, they are not constrained like she is. The flowers are free to "Flutter in the breeze/As they please." While she is trapped by what society believes is proper. And so she cannot feel her lover against her, but can only think. In the fourth stanza she says what she would do if she too could be a flower, and be free with her lover.

I would be the pink and silver as I ran along the paths, 
And he would stumble after,  
Bewildered by my laughter.
("Patterns," Stanza 4, lines 1-3)

When he caught her, she would not be in the "stiff brocade" and "whalebone." She would be injured by the buttons of his waistcoat "Aching melting unafraid." (Stanza 4, line 10) Amy Lowell brings out the evils of social restraints not only through her use of imagery but also through her " . . . expertly constructed monologue; "Patterns" contains the subtle tonal and musical effects that Lowell argued free verse was capable of.(Benvenuto137) In "Patterns, "Amy" uses structure, rhythm, assonance, alliteration, and consonance, to bring out her theme. In the lines regarding the flowers, the words flow faster and smoother. For instance when the woman speaks of the flowers she says, "And all the daffodils/ Are blowing, and the bright blue squills./ I walk down the patterned garden-paths." There is a change in the sound of the lines. Those referring to the flowers is light and breezy, while those referring to the paths are heavy and labored. The lines regarding herself, and her entrapment, have longer vowels, are slower, and choppier. Another example of how she brings out the theme is where she calls her self a rare pattern. The word "pattern" is on a separate line form the rest of the sentence, accenting it. This creates the illusion of a thought process. As if the woman herself were trying to think of what she was, if she were a "rare beauty," a "rare flower," or as she says, "a rare pattern." Another poem in which Amy revolts against the norms of the society of her time is "Little Ivory Figures Pulled With a String." In this poem like "Patterns," Amy uses material objects to bring out her theme. The poem is a contrast between intellectual and artistic attitudes. As written previously Amy Lowell followed Shelly's moon-worshiping, and that is what is highly evident in this poem. "The strategy of the poem is to move alternately between the image of this Dionysian revel and that of the constrained intellectual." (Ruihley 136) As the poem progresses Amy asks why he does not join in. "Would you drink only from your brains, Old Man?/ See, the moonlight has reached your knees, "("Little Ivory Figures Pulled with a String" Stanza 5, lines 2-3) She goes on to tell him of the joys and pleasures he will have. This poem's title is also important. The "little ivory figures," also can represent Amy Lowell the poet, and the "old man" the critics. In critiquing Amy the critics tended to forget that she was a person, and not just an artist. In this poem Amy showed that the figures had a life to them; and that their life was better.

In many poems Amy wrote, of Ada's beauty, or the sadness that Amy felt when the two were separated. So when in "Penumbra" she wrote:

  
And I shall whisper my thoughts and fancies 
As Always, 
From the pages of my books, 
("Penumbra" lines 37-38)

she was not wrong. In "Frimaire," she also wrote about her love for Ada and Amy's possible death. This was a worry of Amy Lowell's because of a hernia she had received while pulling a carriage out of the gutter. The love that Amy had for Ada is not a physical love, but a metaphysical love. In the poem "In Excelsis" Amy writes of the type of love they share.

Your shadow is sunlight on a plate of silver;
Your footsteps, the seeding- pace of lilies;
Your hands moving, a chime of bells across a windless air.
(In Excelsis lines 2-4)

The beauty of Ada Russell is not outer but inner beauty; it is a Divine beauty. This type of beauty is another theme in Amy Lowell's writing. In lines 32-33 Amy writes, "So that I say 'Glory! Glory!' and bow before you/ As to a shrine?" In "The Altar," "Obligation," and "Twenty-four Hokku on a Modern Theme," Amy has the theme of Divinity. In A Dome the divinity of beauty is most noticeable. Amy also uses outside elements to bring out the beauty of the person she is writing about. One of the more common objects is flowers. In "Frimaire," Amy Lowell uses two flowers to represent her and Ada Russell. These poems are all about love and the happiness love brings. Not all of Lowell's poems however, were about the joy that Ada brought to her. "The Taxi" for instance, is a poem written when Ada and Amy were separated for a short time. In lines 2 and 3 Amy writes, "The world beats dead/ Like a slackened drum." The speaker in this poem is separated from her lover. As they get farther and farther away from each other, life becomes more unbearable, and it is harder to remember the lover. Though this poem is not a poem professing the beauty of Ada, it is another poem stating the infallible love that Amy had for Ada.

Both themes, that of revolt against society, and the love for Ada Russell, are both brought out through another object. In Amy Lowell's poetry objects come to life, and form relationships with humans. In "Patterns," the garden and the flowers stood to represent the constraints on the woman. While "Little Ivory Figures Pulled with a String," there are several objects, most importantly the ivory figures. "In Excelsis," also has several objects. Amy refers to herself as and empty bottle, and to Ada as water, "As a new jar I am empty and open./ Like white water are you who dill the cup of my mouth." (lines 14-15) Nature is a dominant object used in creating a relationship in Amy Lowell's poetry. "Lilacs," Amy's most requested poem is about Lilacs and "expresses clearly the relationship between things or places and people . . . " (Critical Survey of Poetry) The poem describes the relationship of New England and lilacs, and finally lilacs and the citizens of New England. The poems last stanza equates lilacs with the poet. Amy Lowell wrote in the fifth paragraph line 12, "Lilac in me because I am new England." These uses of tangible objects are what makes Amy Lowell's writing so superb. The use of tangible objects is common in imagist poetry.

Though Amy Lowell tends to use many of the Imagist forms, she is not an Imagist. She is a discoverer of poetry. Her poetry is a "history of the poetry of her time." In her style of writing Amy was precise, and musical. Ann Stanford said:

Because of her wide ranges in style, critics have commented that Amy Lowell was nothing but a student and a lover of poetry. They have said that the poetry she wrote is mediocre, and is only an insight into Amy Lowell, that the poetry itself is of no worth. These critics would be wrong. Amy Lowell's poetry may have centered on her own thoughts; but it is not mediocre. The fact that she studied poetry, and tried different styles does not mean that she was trying to write poetry. But that she was writing poetry, and had something to say. She just wanted to say it the best way possible. For Amy Lowell, the use of material objects, polyphonic prose, and vivid imagery helped her to make these ideas into realities.