Robert Lowell was a renowned poet of the early 20th century. He won several awards, including the Pulitzer Prize, which makes this poem ironic. He writes, " Somehow never wrote something to go back to." In this poem, Lowell tells of his desire to write something of substance. He says, "I memorized the tricks to set the river on fire"- or rather, he knows the tricks to writing a good poem. He plays words as we would cards. He has no problem tossing together a string of words and accepting the praise of his ingenuity. He speaks of Parnassus- the mountain in Greek mythology that is "the seat of music and poetry;" he has earned a seat on the slopes, but he has long to go before he can reach the peaks. I think we all like to wonder around the slopes. We live for excuses, so we do not have to reach our potential. The magnanimity- or rather the undetermined capacity of mankind is intimidating. We admire the greatness of humanity from our rocking chair on our front porch, perhaps too afraid to know our own capacity. Just food for thought.
This is good. What else can you tell me about the structure and how he chooses his words. Try to use some poetry terms/language. :)
ReplyDeleteI need more explanination please...
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