Robert Lowell and the Sublime

Henry Hart establishes the connection between Robert Lowell - one of the most important American poets of the last fifty years - and one of the principal sites of current aesthetic theory, the sublime, a prominent tradition in literature, which traces journeys beyond ordinary language and behavior into exalted states. Lowell's casual interest in the sublime, which eventually became an obsession, dominated his poetry. By searching archives and manuscript collections that take us back to Lowell's beginnings at St. Mark's, Harvard, and Kenyon, the author uncovers early and telling instances of the poet's interest in the poetics of sublimity.
Hart illuminates the complexities of this poet's imagination in original ways, connecting Lowell firmly to the tradition of American Romanticism. He provides insights into Lowell's poems, especially the lesser-known works and discerns an allegorical pattern throughout the poetry that involves two interrelated elements: battles against patriarchal gods and failed, often demonic quests for transcendent ideals. He maintains that this pattern of battle and quest has its roots in Lowell's Oedipal struggle against his father, and that quest is essential to attaining an experience of the sublime. Linking these two concepts - the Oedipal struggle and the sublime - is entirely new in Lowell studies.

Henry Hart is Associate Professor of English at The College of William and Mary.