38+ Robert Lowell Quotes On Nature, Death And Washington

Robert Lowell was an American poet who wrote during the mid-20th century. He was a major figure in the confessional poetry movement and his work often explored themes of mental illness, faith, and family. His most famous works include Life Studies and The Mills of the Kavanaughs. Following is our collection on famous quotes by Robert Lowell on love, life, nature.

Top 10 Robert Lowell Quotes

1. We feel the machine slipping from our hands As if someone else were steering; If we see light at the end of the tunnel, It's the light of the oncoming train.
2. Their monument sticks like a fishbone in the city's throat.
3. History has to live with what was here, clutching and close to fumbling all we had - it is so dull and gruesome how we die, unlike writing, life never finishes.
4. Most poetry is very formal, but when a modern poet is formal he gets more attention for it than old poets did.
5. I was overcome with an attack of pathological enthusiasm.
6. It's the light of the oncoming train.
7. Sometimes nothing is so solid to me as writing - I suppose that's what a vocation means - at times a torment, a bad conscience, but all in all, purpose and direction.
8. Everywhere, giant finned cars nose forward like fish; a savage servility slides by on grease.
9. In the end, every hypochondriac is his own prophet.
10. What can the dove of Jesus give You now but wisdom, exile? Stand and live, The dove has brought an olive branch to eat.

Robert Lowell Short Quotes

• We are all old-timers, each of us holds a locked razor.
• If we see light at the end of the tunnel, it the light of the oncoming train.
• But sometimes everything I write with the threadbare art of my eye seems a snapshot
• Pity the planet, all joy gone from this sweet volcanic cone
• the scythers, Time and Death, Helmed locusts, move upon the tree of breath
• Once fishing was a rabbit's foot-- O wind blow cold, O wind blow hot
• The world is absolutely out of control now and is not going to be saved by any reason or unreason.
• In the end, there is no end.
• If youth is a defect, it is one we outgrow too soon.
• The light at the end of the tunnel is just the light of an oncoming train.

Robert Lowell Famous Quotes And Sayings

Pity the planet, all joy gone from this sweet volcanic cone; peace to our children when they fall in small war on the heel of small war--until the end of time to police the earth, a ghost orbiting forever lost in our monotonous sublime — Robert Lowell

I want to apologize for plaguing you with so many telephone calls last November and December. When the 'enthusiasm' is coming on me it is accompanied by a feverish reaching out to my friends. After its over I wince and wither. — Robert Lowell

I saw the spiders marching through the air, Swimming from tree to tree that mildewed day In latter August when the hay Came creaking to the barn. But where The wind is westerly, Where gnarled November makes the spiders fly Into the apparitions of the sky, They purpose nothing but their ease and die Urgently beating east to sunrise and the sea. — Robert Lowell

I saw the spiders marching through the air, Swimming from tree to tree that mildewed day In latter August when the hay Came creaking to the barn. — Robert Lowell

September twenty-second, Sir, the bough cracks with unpicked apples, and at dawn the small-mouth bass breaks water, gorged with spawn. — Robert Lowell

It is night, And it is vanity, and age Blackens the heart of Adam. Fear, The yellow chirper, beaks its cage. — Robert Lowell

And blue-lung'd combers lumbered to the kill. — Robert Lowell

Middle Age At forty-five, What next, what next? At every corner, I meet my Father, My age, still alive. — Robert Lowell

I myself am hell; nobody's here — Robert Lowell

Wallowing in this bloody sty, I cast for fish that pleased my eye — Robert Lowell

I'm sure that writing isn't a craft, that is, something for which you learn the skills and go on turning out. It must come from some deep impulse, deep inspiration. That can't be taught, it can't be what you use in teaching. — Robert Lowell

It's a completely powerful and serious book, as good as anything in prose or poetry written by a 'beat' writer, and one of the most alive books written by any American for years. I don't see how it could be considered immoral. — Robert Lowell

The Lord survives the rainbow of His will. — Robert Lowell

Those blessed structures, plot and rhyme-- why are they no help to me now I want to make something imagined, not recalled? — Robert Lowell

Poetry is not the record of an event: it is an event. — Robert Lowell

Life begins to happen. My hoppped up husband drops his home disputes, and hits the streets to cruise for prostitutes — Robert Lowell

I will catch Christ with a greased worm, And when the Prince of Darkness stalks My bloodstream to its Stygian term . . . On water the Man-Fisher walks. — Robert Lowell

Talking about the past is like a cat's trying to explain climbing down a ladder. — Robert Lowell

Life Lessons by Robert Lowell

1. Robert Lowell's work often explores themes of mortality, identity, and the human condition, encouraging readers to reflect on the fragility of life and the importance of cherishing every moment.
2. His poetry also speaks to the power of resilience, showing how we can overcome adversity and find strength in the face of difficulty.
3. By examining Lowell's life and work, we can learn to appreciate the beauty of life, to be mindful of our mortality, and to strive for resilience in the face of adversity.