Lecture-8-The-Confessional-School.ppt

1、Lecture EightThe Confessional School (Robert Lowell),Robert Lowell was called the father of the confessional poets.,I. The Confessional School and Robert Lowell,1. Features of The Confessional School A ruthless,excruciating self-analysis of ones own background and heritage, ones own most private des

2、ires and fantasies etc., and the urgent “Ill-tell-it-all-to-you” impulse. Please refer to page 356 of the textbook.,2. Robert Lowells Lifestory,Robert Lowell (19171977) was born in Boston as the son of Robert Traill Spence Lowell. Other members of the distinguished, intellectual family included the

3、poet and critic James Russell Lowell and the poet Amy Lowell. Lowell began writing at St. Marks School, where his teacher was the poet Richard Eberhart. He studied English literature at Harvard. When his parents rejected the woman he proposed to marry, he broke from his family. On the advice of a ps

4、ychiatrist, he transferred to Kenyon College (Ohio). There he studied poetry and criticism, graduating in 1940.,His teachers included John Crowe Ransom (1888-1974), who was a member of the Agrarian Movement. In 1940 Lowell converted Roman Catholicism and married against his parents will the writer J

5、ean Stafford - they divorced eight years later. In 1949 Lowell married the novelist and critic Elisabeth Hardwick. However, two years earlier Lowell had met the poet Elizabet Bishop, who influenced deeply his work. Lowell fantasized marrying her and dedicated to Bishop his poem Skunk Hour in LIFE ST

6、UDIES (1959).,After graduating, Lowell moved on a fellowship to Louisiana State University, where he worked with Robert Penn Warren and Cleanth Brooks. Although Lowell tried to enlist in the armed forces during WW II, he declared himself a conscientious objector by the time he was called for service

7、. In 1943 he served five months of a prison sentence for refusing the draft. It is possible that the experiences of imprisonment played some role when his mental health later collapsed. In 1944 appeared Lowells first collection of poetry, the autobiographical LAND OF UNLIKENESS. In it Lowell used Ch

8、ristian symbolism and juxtaposed the world of grace to the urban life. His second book, LORD WEARYS CASTLE (1946), which was awarded the Pulitzer Prize, marked a return to the New England milieu.,These two early books are among Lowells confessional works, others were LIFE STUDIES (1959), which won t

9、he National Book Award in 1960, and THE DOLPHIN (1973). In THE MILLS OF THE KAVANAUGHS (1949) Lowell blended classical myths with New England landscape. The work contained a narrative poem of some 600 lines and five other poems. The Quaker Graveyeard in Nantucket referred to such sources as Henry Da

10、vid Thoreaus Cape Cod, Herman Melvilles Moby-Dick, and the Bible. Captain Ahab and his pursuit of the great whale is a central image in the poem. In 1949 Lowell was hospitalized for mania at Baldpate Hospital in Georgetown, Massachusetts. In McLeans Hospital, during one of his periodic incarceration

11、s, he composed his famous love poem Walking in the Blue.,Lowell received the Harriet Monroe Poetry award in 1952 and the Guinness Poetry Award (shared with W.H. Auden, Edith Sitwell, and Edwin Muir) in 1959. In the 1950s, Lowell spent a few years abroad. He settled in 1954 in Boston, where he worked

12、 as a teacher at the University of Boston (1955-60). During this decade he was a visiting lecturer at the University of Cincinnati and Harvard University. The 1950s saw also the emergence of the Beat Generation, but in the tradition- conscious Boston, the influence of the movement was not earth-shat

13、tering.,In the 1960s Lowell was active in the civil-rights and antiwar campaigns. He made a number of widely published political gestures, refusing among others to attend the White House Festival of the Arts because of opposition to the Vietnam war. Every serious artist knows that he cannot enjoy pu

14、blic celebration without making public commitments, he once said. From 1963 to 1970 he was a teacher at Harvard. In 1972 Lowell divorced from his second wife. During the 1970s Lowell lived in England, where he was a visiting fellow at All Souls College, Oxford (1970), visiting lecturer at the Univer

15、sity of Essex (1970-72) and at the University of Kent (1970-1975). In 1973 Lowell published three collections of poetry.,Lowell died of heart failure in a taxi on September 12, 1977, in New York. At the time of his death, he was returning to Elizabeth and his daughter, after breaking with Caroline.

16、His last collection was DAY BY DAY, in which he used free verse like he had done in his early works. Lowells record of his domestic history received posthumously in 1978 the National Book Critics Circle Award.,3. Appreciations on A Poem by Robert Lowell,Memories of West Street and Lepke Only teachin

17、g on Tuesday, book-worming in pajamas fresh from the washer each morning, I hog a whole house on Bostons hardly passionate Marlborough Street, where even the man scavenging filth in the back alley trash cans, has two children, a beach wagon, a helpmate,and is a young Republican. I have a nine months

18、 daughter, young enough to be my granddaughter. Like the sun she rises in her flame-flamingo infants wear. These are the tranquillized Fifties, and I am forty. Ought I to regret my seedtime? I was a fire-breathing Catholic C.O., and made my manic statement, telling off the state and president, and t

19、hen sat waiting sentence in the bull pen,beside a Negro boy with curlicues of marijuana in his hair. Given a year, I walked on the roof of the West Street Jail, a short enclosure like my school soccer court, and saw the Hudson River once a day through sooty clothesline entanglements and bleaching kn

20、aki tenements. Strolling, I yammered metaphysics with Abramowitz, a jaundice-yellow (its really tan) and fly-weight pacifist,so vegetarian, he wore rope shoes and preferred fallen fruit. He tried to convert Bioff and Brown, the Hollywood pimps, to his diet. Hairy, muscular, suburban, wearing chocola

21、te, suburban, wearing chocolate double-breasted suits, they blew their tops and beat him black and blue. I was so out of things, Id never heard of the Jehovahs Witnesses. Are you a C.O.? I asked a fellow jailbird.,No, he answered, Im a J.W. He taught me the hospital tuck, and pointed out the T-shirt

22、ed back of Murder Incorporateds Czar Lepke, there piling towels on a rack, or dawdling off to his little segregated cell full of things forbidden the common man: a portable radio, a dresser, two toy American flags tied together with a ribbon of Easter palm. Flabby, bald, lobotomized, he drifted in a

23、 sheepish calm, where no agonizing reappraisal,jarred his concentration on the electric chair- hanging like an oasis in his air of lost connections ,回 忆 西 街 监 狱 和 纳 裴 克 只 在 星 期 二 早 上 授 课， 每 天 早 晨 在 淋 浴 后 穿 着 睡 衣 看 看 书， 我 在 波 士 顿 “难 得 激 情 的 马 尔 伯 勒 大 街” 拥 有 整 整 一 座 房 子。 那 儿， 即 使 是 为 后 街 的 垃 圾 桶 做 清 洁

24、 的 人 也 有 两 个 孩 子， 一 辆 沙 滩 马 车， 一 个 仆 人， 并 且 是 一 个 “年 青 的 共 和 党 员”。,我 有 一 个 九 个 月 大 的 女 儿， 小 的 可 以 做 我 的 孙 女。 她 象 太 阳 一 样 从 她 的火 烈 鸟 童 装 中 站 起 来。 这 是 平 静 的 五 十 年 代， 我 四 十 岁。 我 应 该 为 自 己 的 成 熟 期 感 到 遗 憾 吗？ 我 是 一 个 激 烈 的 天 主 教 反 战 者， 发 表 了 我 狂 躁 的 申 明， 反 对 国 家 和 总 统， 然 后 呆 在 牛 棚 里 准 备 受 审 和 一 个 头 发 中 有

25、 大 麻 卷 曲 装 饰 的 黑 人 孩 子 一 道,被 判 一 年， 我 在 西 街 监 狱 的 房 顶 上 行 走， 一 条 短 围 墙 象 我 学 校 的 足 球 院 子， 我 每 天 透 过 沾 满 煤 灰 的 缠 绕 在 一 起 的 晾 衣 绳 和 漂 白 的 土 黄 色 公 寓 见 到 一 次 哈 得 逊 河。 散 步 时， 我 和 阿 步 摩 维 茨 探 讨 玄 学， 象 黄 疸 那 样 黄 （“ 皮 肤 晒 得 真 红” 最 轻 量 级 的 和 平 主 义 者， 非 常 坚 持 素 食， 他 穿 着 绳 鞋， 喜 欢 吃 掉 下 来 的 水 果。 他 努 力 使 两 位 好 来

26、 坞 的 老 鸨，,毕 沃 夫 和 布 朗， 接 受 他 的 食 谱。 而 这 体多 毛 的 两 位 肌 肉 发 达、 性 格 偏 执， 他 们穿 着 巧 克 力 色 的 双 胸 套 服， 勃 然 大 怒， 将 他 揍 得 鼻 青 脸 肿。 我 如 此 孤 陋 寡 闻， 我 从 没 有 听 说 过 耶 和 华 的 目 击 证 人。 “你 是 反 战 主 义 者 吗？” 我 问 一 位 同 室 囚 徒。 “ 不”， 他 回 答 说， “我 是 耶 和 华 的 目 击 证 人。” 他 教 我“ 医 院 的 糕 点” 指 出 那 位 身 上 穿 着T 恤 衫 的 谋 杀 案 同 伙 查 纳 裴 克，

27、,他在 那 儿 往 一 个 架 子 上 晾 毛 巾， 或 者 磨 蹭 着 走 进 他 的 堆 满了 一 般 人 没 有 的 东 西 的 小 房 间： 一 台 袖 珍 收 音 机， 一 个 餐 桌， 两 个 用 复 活 节 棕 榈 带 绑 在 一 起 的 两 面 玩 具 美 国 国 旗。 他的肌肉松弛， 头顶脱发，反应 迟 钝。 他 堕 入 一 种 胆 怯 的 平 静， 没 有任何 令 人 痛苦 的 重 新 思考 将 他 的 注 意 力 从 电 椅 上 移 开 电椅在 他 那孤独 的 空 气 中 象 一 块 绿 洲悬浮,David Kalstone: Memories of West Stree

28、t and Lepke shuttles back and forth between the comfortable Lowell living in Boston in the 1950s and his recall of the year he spent in a New York jail as a conscientious objector. . . . He talks about himself in implied ironic quotation marks. You imagine them around fire-breathing and manic in the

29、 lines I was a fire-breathing Catholic C.O., / and made my manic statement. Line endings have a similar dry effect: Given a year, / I walked on the roof of the West Street Jail. The break forces a wry question; a momentary stepping back, given, indeed. This is the language of a man on trial, who hea

30、r words as if they belonged to someone else.,The distance between the speaker and his experience gives Memories of West Street and Lepke its special tension, the air that something is being withheld rather than yielded. So, for example, the mind seems to be making some flickering connection between

31、the daughters flame-flamingo infants wear and the seedtime of the fire-breathing Catholic C.O. It is a linguistic tease, not fully worked out. We are being asked to think about the dragon of a father, and the roseate daughter young enough to be his granddaughter, about a passage of vitality. Somethi

32、ng is being suggested about failed ideology and the lapse into slogan-encapsulated domesticity of the 1950s and middle age.,. . .The arrangement of details and scenes invites us to make comparisons and contrasts upon which the poem itself deliberately makes no comment . . . . Finally, the poets baff

33、led failure to generalize becomes one of the subjects of the poem. The figures in the frieze have the air of being deliberately chosen and placed, as the connections are between the criminal past and the respectable drugged present, the poem bristles with the challenge to recapture and unite them. I

34、ts selective organization teases us toward meaning, even if it is only in the form of a conundrum, a puzzle whose pieces we must match ourselves. -From The Uses of History, in Robert Lowell, ed. Harold Bloom (New York: Chelsea House, 1987), 91-93.,Stephen Yenser: Memories of West Street and Lepke is

35、 itself an agonizing reappraisal, as is the whole of Life Studies; but this more or less explicit contrast serves almost to link the two men rather than to separate them, while the concentration on death and the air / of lost connections, are remarkably applicable to the poetry of this volume. The s

36、ame relationship obtains between Lepke and Lowell as does between the lost connections and the sooty clothesline entanglements that the poet saw from the roof of the West Street Jail. The figure of Lepke is more a mirage than a mirror image - as the oasis suggests - and consequently the technique of

37、 the poem itself exemplifies the air / of lost connections.,That there is a connection at some level between the poet-speaker and the gangster is intimated by Lowells recollection of himself in During Fever as part criminal and yet a Phi Bete. That description of himself is relevant to During Fever

38、because the poem goes ahead to recall the rehashing of his fathers character, but both the description and the rehashing are also relevantto this poem; if Lepke is a murderer in fact, the poet-speaker is one in intent. This is to put the matter too bluntly, perhaps, but what Lowell seems to suspect

39、in these poems is that any mans murder taints other men. -From Circle to Circle: The Poetry of Robert Lowell. Copyright ? 1975 by the Regents of the University of California.,Philip Metres: In a period when HUAC was terrorizing American intellectuals and artists, Lowells Memories of West Street and

40、Lepke reflects and refracts that element of public confession of his political dissent during the Second World War. Lowells disavowal of his objection in Memoriesas naive oedipal rebellion, as religious zealotry, or as maniccan be read as a complex pledge of allegiance to power. . . . At the center

41、of Life Studies, the poem recounts a midlife crisis, an individuals and a countrys, in the middle of the bloodiest of centuries: These are the tranquillized Fifties, / and I am forty (Selected Poems 91). Moreover, the poem creates an in- surmountable opposition, in the tradition of Yeatss Easter 1916 and Audens September 1, 1939, between t