Robert Lowell

Robert Traill Spence Lowell, IV (March 1, 1917 – September 12, 1977) was an American poet.

Among his relatives were James Russell Lowell, Percival Lowell and Amy Lowell.

Quotes

 * A brackish reach of shoal off Madaket-- The sea was still breaking violently and night Had steamed into our North Atlantic Fleet, When the drowned sailor clutched the drag-net. Light Flashed from his matted head and marble feet, He grappled at the net With the coiled, hurdling muscles of his thighs: The corpse was bloodless, a botch of reds and whites, Its open, staring eyes Were lustreless dead-lights Or cabin-windows   on a stranded hulk Heavy with sand.
 * Poem: The Quaker Graveyard in Nantucket


 * Once fishing was a rabbit's foot-- O wind blow cold, O wind blow hot, Let suns stay in or suns step out: Life danced a jig on the sperm-whale's spout-- The fisher's fluent and obscene Catches kept his conscience clean.
 * Poem: The Drunken Fisherman

Quotes about Robert Lowell

 * Over many years (I am almost 72) so many poets have touched my imagination and opened paths for me—it hardly makes sense to list them. I have always read a great deal of poetry. Some poets—like Robert Lowell, Denise Levertov, Randall Jarrell, Jean Valentine, Audre Lorde, Hayden Carruth, Jane Cooper, June Jordan, Joy Harjo, Clayton Eshelman—have been my friends, we’ve been comrades in exchanging work and encouraging each other
 * Adrienne Rich, Interview (2001)