Joan Romano Shifflett - Warren, Jarrell, and Lowell: Collaboration in the Reshaping of American Poetry

W arren, Jarrell, and Lowell

W arren

J arrell

& Lowell

COLLABORATION

IN THE RESHAPING

OF AMERICAN POETRY

Joan Romano Shifflett

Louisiana State University Press

Baton Rouge

Published by Louisiana State University Press

Copyright 2020 by Louisiana State University Press

All rights reserved

Designer: Michelle A. Neustrom

Typeface: MillerText

Portions of chapter 5 first appeared, in different form, in The Relatable Robert Lowell, Literary Matters 10.1 (Fall 2017), and are reprinted with permission of the editor. Portions of chapter 7 first appeared, in different form, in Reckoning with Americas Past: Robert Penn Warrens Later Poetry, rWp: An Annual of Robert Penn Warren Studies, ed. Mark D. Miller (Bowling Green, KY: The Center for Robert Penn Warren Studies and Western Kentucky University, 2012), 6382, and are reprinted by permission of the publishers.

Library of Congress Cataloging - in - Publication Data

Names: Shifflett, Joan Romano, author.

Title: Warren, Jarrell, and Lowell : collaboration in the reshaping of American poetry / Joan Romano Shifflett.

Description: Baton Rouge : Louisiana State University Press, 2020. | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2019050577 (print) | LCCN 2019050578 (ebook) | ISBN 978-0-8071-7217-9 (cloth) | ISBN 978-0-8071-7381-7 (pdf) | ISBN 978-0-8071-7382-4 (epub)

Subjects: LCSH: American poetry 20th century History and criticism. | Warren, Robert Penn, 19051989 Critcism and interpretation. | Warren, Robert Penn, 19051989 Friends and associates. | Jarrell, Randall, 19141965 Critcism and interpretation. | Jarrell, Randall, 19141965 Friends and associates. | Lowell, Robert, 19171977 Criticism and interpretation. | Lowell, Robert, 19171977 Friends and associates.

Classification: LCC PS323.5 .S55 2020 (print) | LCC PS323.5 (ebook) | DDC 811/.5209 dc

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019050577

LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019050578

The paper in this book meets the guidelines for permanence and durability of the Committee on Production Guidelines for Book Longevity of the Council on Library Resources.

To Nathan, my Renaissance man,

and our cherished daughters, Juliana Belle and Lucia Lyn

CONTENTS

PREFACE

This project, in the making for over a decade, began with a fortunate coincidence. I recall first reading Robert Lowells The Quaker Graveyard in Nantucket as a freshman in college. There was something about those lines about that brackish reach of shoal off Madaket that struck me, took hold, and then took root. In the way that all students of poetry who resign their lives to the mission of unpacking carefully rendered verse can understand, I was gripped by the pulsing muscularity of that poem, the way it tasted of (ancient) seawater in my mouth. I was equally taken by the depth and ripple effect of meaning generated by Lowells allusions to Moby - Dick , to Greek myth, to the Bible. How did he fit all of this the sounds, the textures, the layers of philosophical thought into one poem? And, I pondered but later, as a graduate student how did that same man accomplish the same feat years later in a free verse poem like Waking in the Blue? Entirely separate from my long - lasting fascination with Lowells verse, I similarly fell in love with Robert Penn Warrens poetry. I was set on fire by Audubon: A Vision, with Warrens earthy voice that rang with authenticity but also posed critical metaphysical questions about identity, time, and the power of story. It would be years until I realized that my unique appreciation for both poets was far more than a coincidence, but in the beginning, the work of these accomplished poets was enough to convince me to devote my career to examining movements and patterns in twentieth - century American poetry.

From that early love came the motivation to complete a sustained and comprehensive study of both poets, which led to my discovery that Warren and Lowell had an enormous impact on each others work, far more than has previously been documented. Furthermore, there was a third, lesser - known poet who was equally instrumental in this sphere of influence: Randall Jarrell. Within studies of twentieth - century American literature, there is a general awareness that Warren (190589), Jarrell (191465), and Lowell (191777) knew one another well; some critics have even studied them in tandem. After all, Warren taught Jarrell at Vanderbilt University and Lowell at Louisiana State University in the 1930s, and Jarrell and Lowell formed a lasting friendship while studying and rooming together at Kenyon College during that decade. Though various works have explored these writers careers within sundry contexts, no sustained examination of their relationships with one another exists. My project demonstrates how the men of this trio quickly became equals, colleagues, confidants, and invaluable lifelong critics of one anothers work.

According to a common view of American literature, Warren the former Agrarian southerner and coauthor of New Critical standards such as Understanding Poetry and Understanding Fiction is traditionally grouped with John Crowe Ransom, Allen Tate, and Cleanth Brooks. Jarrell, somewhat forgotten and often neglected in literary matters save his criticism, does not appear to deserve a spot alongside Warren and Lowell as a major literary figure in American poetry. Lowell, the aristocratic Bostonian and father of the Confessional movement, seems least likely of all to be linked in literary history to Warren and Jarrell. However, there is a serious need to reconsider these limited views that preclude a full understanding of how these poets changed American poetry.

Despite the fact that these three artists enjoyed and benefited professionally from lifelong, well - documented relationships with one another, previous histories have discouraged scholars from investigating the significance of these connections. The traditional understanding of American poetry at mid - twentieth century holds that after the dominance of high modernism and the New Critical mode for thirty years, younger poets looked to figures such as William Carlos Williams and Charles Olson in order to break free from their predecessors to create what is now defined as postmodern poetry. In addition to this breakthrough narrative, midcentury poets commonly are grouped in relation to the five major schools of contemporary verse: Black Mountain, New York School, Beat, Confessional, and Deep Image. As with most established patterns in literary history, there is utility in categorizing broad literary movements, but it is also reductive in nature. Some of Americas important poets, including Elizabeth Bishop, Howard Nemerov, Karl Shapiro, Louis Simpson, and Richard Wilbur as well as lesser - known female and multicultural writers are excluded from these categories. More important for this book, much of the poetry that Warren, Jarrell, and Lowell were creating in the 1950s and 1960s does not align with any one of these schools. For instance, though Lowells poetry is considered the model for Confessional poets, that label contributes to narrow and sometimes inaccurate representations of Lowells career.

Essentially, the previously unexplored connections among these three poets, and the innovative poetry they encouraged one another to create, serve as a case study for an alternative view to the current understanding of American literary history. My methodology for this book was to focus both on literary history and aesthetics, thereby developing a historical narrative that includes close readings of primary texts within a variety of social, literary, and historical contexts. Exploring the parallel literary development of Warren, Jarrell, and Lowell through this lens offers a new understanding of the changes their poetry underwent at midcentury. Their relationships with one another served as a catalyst for a simultaneous shift in which they transcend formalism and high modernism with a new poetic mode that, while partly reflective of these traditions, draws on innovative stylistic choices to engage in an authentic exploration of selfhood within the contexts of the postmodern world. Ultimately, having closely scrutinized the personal exchanges and creative output of all three poets while also considering current criticism on these authors, relevant historical and aesthetic issues, unpublished archival findings, and the established views of formalism, high modernism, and the New Criticism I hope to have provided a better sense of where these authors fit into literary history and, more specifically, into the landscape of American poetry.