What do you think?
Rate this book
Mills of the Kavanaughs
Book by Lowell, Robert
- GenresPoetry
Hardcover
First published April 1, 1951
12 people want to read
About the author
Robert Lowell
182 books269 followersRobert Lowell, born Robert Traill Spence Lowell, IV, was an American poet whose works, confessional in nature, engaged with the questions of history and probed the dark recesses of the self. He is generally considered to be among the greatest American poets of the twentieth century.
His first and second books, Land of Unlikeness (1944) and Lord Weary's Castle (for which he received a Pulitzer Prize in 1947, at the age of thirty), were influenced by his conversion from Episcopalianism to Catholicism and explored the dark side of America's Puritan legacy.
Under the influence of Allen Tate and the New Critics, he wrote rigorously formal poetry that drew praise for its exceptionally powerful handling of meter and rhyme. Lowell was politically involved—he became a conscientious objector during the Second World War and was imprisoned as a result, and actively protested against the war in Vietnam—and his personal life was full of marital and psychological turmoil. He suffered from severe episodes of manic depression, for which he was repeatedly hospitalized.
Partly in response to his frequent breakdowns, and partly due to the influence of such younger poets as W. D. Snodgrass and Allen Ginsberg, Lowell in the mid-fifties began to write more directly from personal experience, and loosened his adherence to traditional meter and form. The result was a watershed collection, Life Studies (1959), which forever changed the landscape of modern poetry, much as Eliot's The Waste Land had three decades before.
Considered by many to be the most important poet in English of the second half of the twentieth century, Lowell continued to develop his work with sometimes uneven results, all along defining the restless center of American poetry, until his sudden death from a heart attack at age 60. Robert Lowell served as a Chancellor of The Academy of American Poets from 1962 until his death in 1977.
His first and second books, Land of Unlikeness (1944) and Lord Weary's Castle (for which he received a Pulitzer Prize in 1947, at the age of thirty), were influenced by his conversion from Episcopalianism to Catholicism and explored the dark side of America's Puritan legacy.
Under the influence of Allen Tate and the New Critics, he wrote rigorously formal poetry that drew praise for its exceptionally powerful handling of meter and rhyme. Lowell was politically involved—he became a conscientious objector during the Second World War and was imprisoned as a result, and actively protested against the war in Vietnam—and his personal life was full of marital and psychological turmoil. He suffered from severe episodes of manic depression, for which he was repeatedly hospitalized.
Partly in response to his frequent breakdowns, and partly due to the influence of such younger poets as W. D. Snodgrass and Allen Ginsberg, Lowell in the mid-fifties began to write more directly from personal experience, and loosened his adherence to traditional meter and form. The result was a watershed collection, Life Studies (1959), which forever changed the landscape of modern poetry, much as Eliot's The Waste Land had three decades before.
Considered by many to be the most important poet in English of the second half of the twentieth century, Lowell continued to develop his work with sometimes uneven results, all along defining the restless center of American poetry, until his sudden death from a heart attack at age 60. Robert Lowell served as a Chancellor of The Academy of American Poets from 1962 until his death in 1977.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 of 1 review
September 18, 2020
Robert Lowell was a major poet who earned many awards, including the National Book Award, the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, the National Book Critics Circle Award, and a National Institute of Arts and Letters Award.
Each of the poems in 'The Mills of the Kavanaughs' are elaborate, well-wrought dramatic monologues. It's a good collection and if you're a Robert Lowell fan, it's worth reading.
To be honest, I liked these poems more than the ones in his Pulitzer Prize winner 'Lord Weary's Castle'. It's just my preference though. These poems are brimming with lovely phrases, profound scenes, vivid imagery and beautiful musicality.
(Also, "The" is missing from the title. It's "The Mills of the Kavanaughs")
Each of the poems in 'The Mills of the Kavanaughs' are elaborate, well-wrought dramatic monologues. It's a good collection and if you're a Robert Lowell fan, it's worth reading.
To be honest, I liked these poems more than the ones in his Pulitzer Prize winner 'Lord Weary's Castle'. It's just my preference though. These poems are brimming with lovely phrases, profound scenes, vivid imagery and beautiful musicality.
(Also, "The" is missing from the title. It's "The Mills of the Kavanaughs")
Displaying 1 of 1 review