Excellence and Loss

Abstract

The experiences of Berryman and Lowell during the 1950s proved crucial to the redefinition of their poetics. Such a statement is rather broad, with a general rather than a specific application. But in Homage to Mistress Bradstreet (1953) Berryman turned sharply away from the epistemological basis of his earlier poetics, and began to explore themes in a different style. It appears probable that personal traumata underlie the making of Homage; as is undoubtedly the case with Berryman’s Sonnets, written in 1947 and not published until 1967. In 1955 Berryman wrote his first Dream Song. Homage and the Dream Songs will be examined in the next chapter; here the focus is on Life Studies, though the similarities between Berryman’s work and Lowell’s should become apparent. Both the Dream Songs and Life Studies seek and explore the possibilities of a context in which personal survival may be achieved amid apparent cultural decline; and the personal experiences of Berryman and Lowell contribute greatly to the need for such an exploration. In both works a fresh poetic emerges. In this chapter I shall examine the individual nature of Lowell’s poetics and the implications this has for an understanding of his work.