Literary Birthday – 9 February – Amy Lowell

Amy Lowell was born 9 February 1874, and died 12 May 1925.

Poetry

‘All books are either dreams or swords,
You can cut, or you can drug, with words.’

‘For books are more than books, they are the life
The very heart and core of ages past,
The reason why men lived and worked and died,
The essence and quintessence of their lives.’

‘I am tired, Beloved,
of chafing my heart against
the want of you;
of squeezing it into little inkdrops,
And posting it.’

In the introduction to Some Imagist Poets: An Anthology, Lowell set down some criteria for Imagist writers. They should strive, she wrote,

‘1. To use the language of common speech …
2. To create new rhythms …
3. To allow absolute freedom in the choice of subject …
4. To present an image …
5. To produce poetry that is hard and clear, never blurred nor indefinite.
6. Finally, most of us believe that concentration is of the very essence of poetry.’

Amy Lowell was an American poet who posthumously won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1926. She was also a performer, editor, and translator who devoted her life to the cause of modern poetry. Her poems are available in Complete Poetical Works of Amy Lowell.

Source for image: Houghton Library, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Houghton_MS_Lowell_62_(5)_-_Bachrach.jpg

by Amanda Patterson

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