Groundbreaking Book: Life Studies by Robert Lowell (1959) - Poets.org - Poetry, Poems, Bios & More success fail Mar MAY Aug 29 2009 2010 2011 70 captures 29 May 2005 - 27 Jul 2020 About this capture COLLECTED BY Organization: Alexa Crawls Starting in 1996, Alexa Internet has been donating their crawl data to the Internet Archive. Flowing in every day, these data are added to the Wayback Machine after an embargo period. Collection: alexa_web_2010 this data is currently not publicly accessible. TIMESTAMPS View Cart | Log In  Subscribe | More Info  Advanced Search > FURTHER READING Related Poems Man and Wife by Robert Lowell Skunk Hour by Robert Lowell The Armadillo by Elizabeth Bishop Related Prose Confessionalography: A GNAT (Grossly Non-Academic Talk) on "I" in Poetry by Rachel Zucker The Raw and the Cooked: Robert Lowell and the Beats by Tina Cane Poetry Landmark: McLean Hospital in Belmont, MA A Brief Guide to Confessional Poetry Gift Shop Robert Lowell & John Berryman CD by Robert Lowell and John Berryman Related Authors Anne Sexton Robert Lowell Sylvia Plath W. D. Snodgrass Related Pages Groundbreaking Books Adopt a Poet | Add to Notebook | E-mail to Friend | Print Groundbreaking Book: Life Studies by Robert Lowell (1959)   Robert Lowell began his poetic career by studying with New Criticism poets such as Allen Tate, John Crowe Ransom, and Robert Penn Warren. He wrote rigorously formal verse and at thirty-five was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for his second book, Lord Weary's Castle. However, his most famous book, Life Studies, was a radical departure not only from his earlier work, but also from the larger poetry scene at the time of its publication in 1959. Along with W. D. Snodgrass's Heart's Needle, Lowell's book launched the Confessional Poetry movement. Inspired by his battle with mental illness, his marital problems, and the Vietnam War, Life Studies demonstrates a dramatic turn toward deeply personal work with a loosened adherence to meter and form. The poems are characterized by specific and unflinching autobiographical detail. Life Studies includes many of Lowell's most famous poems, such as: "On a Mad Negro Soldier Confined at Munich," "Man and Wife," and "Commander Lowell." It also features his poem for Elizabeth Bishop, "Skunk Hour," in response to her poem, "The Armadillo." Lowell described "Skunk Hour" as follows: "The first four stanzas are meant to give a dawdling more or less amiable picture of a declining Maine sea town. I move from the ocean inland. Sterility howls through the scenery, but I try to give a tone of tolerance, humor, and randomness to the sad prospect. The composition drifts, its direction sinks out of sight into the casual, chancy arrangements of nature and decay." Considered by many to be one of the most influential poets of the latter half of the twentieth century, Lowell's work in Life Studies had an especially profound impact that is discernible not only in the poetry of his direct contemporaries, such as Sylvia Plath and Anne Sexton, but also in the treatment of biographical detail by countless poets who followed. Shop & Support Poets.org Robert Lowell & John Berryman CD $17.00 | More Info View All Store Items Support independent booksellers Make your purchase online through IndieBound or find a local bookstore on the National Poetry Map. Share Digg StumbleUpon Facebook E-mail to Friend Larger Type | Home | Help | Contact Us | Privacy Policy Copyright © 1997 - 2010 by Academy of American Poets.