By Nava Atlas | On July 12, 2017 | Updated December 28, 2018 | Comments (0)
American Poet Amy Lowell (1874 – 1925) said of her works in vers libre (free verse) that its rhythms “have not been sufficiently plumbed, that there is in them a power of variation which has never yet been brought to the light of experiment.”
Expounding on her vers libre poetry, she wrote about this particular piece, “In ‘The Cremona Violin’ I have tried to give this flowing, changing rhythm to the parts in which the violin is being played. The effect is farther heightened, because the rest of the poem is written in the seven line Chaucerian stanza.” This poem was originally part of a collection titled Men, Women, and Ghosts (1919). Read More→
By Nava Atlas | On July 12, 2017 | Updated June 18, 2020 | Comments (0)
American poet Amy Lowell (1874 – 1925) was a master of imagist poetry. In an introduction to her “vers libre” poetry, she directs the reader of “A Roxbury Garden” to “find in the first two sections an attempt to give the circular movement of a hoop bowling along the ground, and the up and down, elliptical curve of a flying shuttlecock.”
This poem was originally part of a 1919 collection titled Men, Women, and Ghosts. Read More→
By Nava Atlas | On July 12, 2017 | Updated October 26, 2022 | Comments (0)
Prolific American poet Amy Lowell (1874 – 1925) was above all considered an Imagist, which in her definition was the “concentration is of the very essence of poetry” whose aim is to produce verses “that is hard and clear, never blurred nor indefinite.” Here are presented in her words, thoughts on her vers libre (free verse) poetry.
Lowell was kind of an evangelist of poetry, powered by her incredibly energy. She lectured tirelessly to promote poetry, and wrote ceaselessly — in addition to more than 650 poems, she wrote numerous essays, as well as works of criticism and translation. T.S. Eliot called her “the demon saleswoman of poetry.”
Here to shed more light on her work is the poet herself, from the Preface of Men, Women and Ghosts (1919): Read More→
By Nava Atlas | On July 12, 2017 | Updated November 11, 2025 | Comments (0)
Emily Dickinson (December 10, 1830 – May 15, 1886) was a prolific American poet. Though she wrote some 1,800 poems, only a few were published during her lifetime. She is still something of a mystery, which fuels the continued fascination with her work and life.
“Tell all the truth but tell it slant —” is one of her famous lines, and the truths revealed in her poetic works are as individual as the person who reads them.
Dickinson grew up in Amherst, Massachusetts. She was born, lived, and died in the same house. While popular mythology has it that she rarely formed relationships with anyone outside her immediate family, this is not quite accurate. Read More→
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