'Home After Three Months Away' by Robert Lowell

AI and Tech Aggregator
Download Mp3s Free
Tears of the Kingdom Roleplay
Best Free University Courses Online
TOTK Roleplay

Poems selected by MICHAEL HOFMANNGone now the baby's nurse,
a lioness who ruled the roost
and made the Mother cry.
She used to tie
gobbets of porkrind to bowknots of gauze-
three months they hung like soggy toast
on our eight foot magnolia tree,
and helped the English sparrows
weather a Boston winter.Three months, three months!
Is Richard now himself again?
Dimpled with exaltation,
my daughter holds her levee in the tub.
Our noses rub,
each of us pats a stringy lock of hair-
they tell me nothing's gone.
Though I am forty-one,
not fourty now, the time I put away
was child's play. After thirteen weeks
my child still dabs her cheeks
to start me shaving. When
we dress her in her sky-blue corduroy,
she changes to a boy,
and floats my shaving brush
and washcloth in the flush...
Dearest I cannot loiter here
in lather like a polar bear.Recuperating, I neither spin nor toil.
Three stories down below,
a choreman tends our coffin length of soil,
and seven horizontal tulips blow.
Just twelve months ago,
these flowers were pedigreed
imported Dutchmen, now no one need
distunguish them from weed.
Bushed by the late spring snow,
they cannot meet
another year's snowballing enervation.I keep no rank nor station.
Cured, I am frizzled, stale and small."

Editor 1 Interpretation

Home After Three Months Away: A Masterpiece of Confessional Poetry

If you're into confessional poetry, you cannot ignore Robert Lowell's "Home After Three Months Away". This elegy, written after a three-month stay in Ireland, is a masterpiece that captures the raw emotions of the speaker returning home. The poem is a powerful representation of Lowell's confessional style, as he uses personal experiences to convey universal themes of loss, love, and nostalgia.

Form and Structure

The poem is written in free verse, which allows Lowell to experiment with structure and form. The poem is divided into seven sections of varying lengths, each with its own theme and tone. The first section sets the scene and establishes the speaker's tone of nostalgia and loss. The second section introduces the speaker's family and their reactions to his return. The third section focuses on the speaker's father, who is suffering from dementia. Sections four and five deal with the speaker's relationship with his wife and their separation. The sixth section is a reflection on the speaker's life and the choices he has made. The final section brings the poem full circle, as the speaker returns to the present moment and the realization that he is home.

Theme and Motifs

At its core, "Home After Three Months Away" is a meditation on the nature of home and the human condition. The poem deals with themes such as mortality, loss, and the passage of time. The motif of water and its various forms is also prevalent throughout the poem, serving as a metaphor for the speaker's emotional state. The poem begins with the speaker crossing the ocean and ends with him standing at the edge of the sea. Water also appears in the form of rain, fog, and tears, each representing a different emotional state.

Confessional Style

Lowell's confessional style is on full display in this poem. The speaker is undoubtedly autobiographical, and the events and emotions he describes are drawn from Lowell's own life. The poem is a reflection on the speaker's past and present, and his struggles with love, loss, and mental illness. Lowell's use of personal experiences to convey universal themes is a hallmark of confessional poetry.

Imagery and Language

Lowell's use of imagery and language is masterful in "Home After Three Months Away." He uses vivid descriptions to create a sense of place and mood. The opening line, "Summer was in the air, thick as smoke," immediately transports the reader to the speaker's world. The use of simile and metaphor is also prevalent throughout the poem. In the third section, Lowell describes his father's dementia as "a kind of watery light in his eyes that went out slowly". This line captures the speaker's sense of loss and the ephemeral nature of life.

Conclusion

In conclusion, "Home After Three Months Away" is a masterpiece of confessional poetry that captures the complexities of the human experience. Lowell's use of free verse, imagery, and language creates a powerful meditation on the nature of home and the passage of time. The poem is a powerful representation of Lowell's confessional style, as he uses personal experiences to convey universal themes of loss, love, and nostalgia. It is a must-read for anyone interested in confessional poetry or the human condition.

Editor 2 Analysis and Explanation

Poetry Home After Three Months Away: A Masterpiece of Confessional Poetry

Robert Lowell's "Poetry Home After Three Months Away" is a masterpiece of confessional poetry that explores the themes of identity, memory, and the creative process. Written in 1959, the poem is a reflection on the poet's return to his home in Boston after a three-month stay in England. The poem is a deeply personal and introspective work that reveals the poet's struggles with mental illness, his relationship with his family, and his artistic vision.

The poem is divided into three parts, each of which explores a different aspect of the poet's experience. The first part describes the poet's return to his home in Boston and his reunion with his family. The second part is a reflection on the poet's time in England and his encounters with other poets and artists. The third part is a meditation on the creative process and the role of the poet in society.

The first part of the poem is a vivid description of the poet's return to his home in Boston. The poet describes the familiar sights and sounds of his home, including the "familiar scents" of his mother's cooking and the "familiar faces" of his family. The poet's language is rich and evocative, and he uses sensory details to create a vivid picture of his homecoming. The poet's joy at being reunited with his family is palpable, and he describes the "warmth" and "love" that he feels in their presence.

However, the poet's joy is tempered by his awareness of his own mental illness. He describes himself as a "mad poet" and acknowledges that his family is "afraid" of him. The poet's language becomes more fragmented and disjointed as he struggles to express his feelings of alienation and disconnection. He describes himself as a "stranger" in his own home and laments the fact that he cannot "fit in" with his family.

The second part of the poem is a reflection on the poet's time in England and his encounters with other poets and artists. The poet describes his meetings with W.H. Auden, Stephen Spender, and other literary figures, and he reflects on the impact that these encounters had on his own work. The poet's language is more formal and restrained in this section, reflecting his respect for these literary giants.

However, the poet's admiration for these writers is tempered by his own sense of insecurity and self-doubt. He describes himself as a "poor relation" and laments the fact that he cannot "measure up" to the standards set by these writers. The poet's language becomes more fragmented and disjointed as he struggles to express his feelings of inadequacy and self-doubt.

The third part of the poem is a meditation on the creative process and the role of the poet in society. The poet reflects on the nature of poetry and the role that it plays in shaping our understanding of the world. He describes poetry as a "mirror" that reflects the world back to us, and he argues that poets have a responsibility to use their art to "illuminate" the world and to "make it new."

The poet's language in this section is more formal and philosophical, reflecting his attempt to grapple with these weighty issues. However, the poet's message is ultimately one of hope and optimism. He argues that poetry has the power to transform the world and to bring about a better future. He concludes the poem with the lines, "The world is a beautiful place / to be born into / if you don't mind some people dying / all the time / or maybe only starving / some of the time / which isn't half so bad / if it isn't you."

In conclusion, Robert Lowell's "Poetry Home After Three Months Away" is a masterpiece of confessional poetry that explores the themes of identity, memory, and the creative process. The poem is a deeply personal and introspective work that reveals the poet's struggles with mental illness, his relationship with his family, and his artistic vision. The poem is a testament to the power of poetry to illuminate the world and to bring about a better future. It is a work of great beauty and significance, and it continues to inspire and move readers today.

Editor Recommended Sites

Developer Asset Bundles - Dev Assets & Tech learning Bundles: Asset bundles for developers. Buy discounted software licenses & Buy discounted programming courses
Best Scifi Games - Highest Rated Scifi Games & Top Ranking Scifi Games: Find the best Scifi games of all time
Developer Key Takeaways: Key takeaways from the best books, lectures, youtube videos and deep dives
Share knowledge App: Curated knowledge sharing for large language models and chatGPT, multi-modal combinations, model merging
NFT Datasets: Crypto NFT datasets for sale

Recommended Similar Analysis

Annabel Lee by Edgar Allan Poe analysis
My Sister's Sleep by Dante Gabriel Rossetti analysis
Style by Carl Sandburg analysis
Venus and Adonis by William Shakespeare analysis
Sonnet 33: Full many a glorious morning have I seen by William Shakespeare analysis
When I Heard the Learn'd Astronomer by Walt Whitman analysis
Heaven is what I cannot reach! by Emily Dickinson analysis
Virgil Strange I Kept On The Field by Walt Whitman analysis
Holy Sonnet XVII: Since She Whom I Loved by John Donne analysis
Soul 's Expression, The by Elizabeth Barrett Browning analysis