Robert Lowell's Poetry

Matthew Vernon Hanson's Robert Lowell's Poetry is both a close reading and a passionate defense of Lowell as one of the great architects of modern verse. The essay traces Lowell's development from the violent, theological intensity of his early poems to the more intimate, personal revelations of his later work, showing how his verse turns lived experience, history, and religious imagery into events that seize the reader with visceral force. Hanson demonstrates how Lowell's technical mastery—his use of rhyme, rhythm, and associative imagery—creates poems that are not just records of experience but experiences themselves. At once critical and deeply appreciative, the essay illuminates how Lowell fused New England landscapes with myth, Christianity, and personal struggle, producing poems that confront mortality, faith, and despair with unflinching clarity. Hanson's analysis reveals why poems such as The Drunken Fisherman, Skunk Hour, and Dolphin remain among the most powerful in the language: they compel us to wrestle with the same questions Lowell faced—about aging, isolation, love, and the possibility of redemption. The result is a vivid study that makes Lowell's poetry feel as urgent today as when it was first written.