Amy Lowell

I chose to write this post based off the introduction of Amy Lowell this week. I was intrigued by her for several reasons. The first reason is that her family founded Lowell, Massachusetts and that is where I was born so i thought that was pretty interesting. The second reason is that she was considered a socialite of her time. I embarrassingly admit that my biggest guilty pleasure would have to be pop culture, gossip, and reality TV so i imagine if Amy Lowell was alive during our time that she would probably be someone i kept up with. The third reason is I really enjoyed reading her poem “September 1918”.

Looking through the Durham Tech library database i found a peer reviewed article about Amy Lowell called, ” In the Manner of Amy Lowell: Lady of The Moon” by Sihami Karami . In this particular article Karami focuses on a book written by a women named Lillian Faderman who wrote a book detailing Amy Lowell’s intimate life with partner Ada Russell, and the impression the love poems left on the culture of women’s poetry. Same sex relationships during this time were not common and probably frowned upon as i read here in Karami’s article, “Having to hide the lesbian nature of their relationship, however subtly, went against her nature as an open person and an outspoken proponent of freedom of expression.” I think its fair to say Amy Lowell’s poems may not have been fairly given credit until more recent years. as Karami ends her article she thanks Amy Lowell with this, “inspiring future generations of poets to become a feminist voice for freedom of expression.”

Karami, Sihami. “In the manner of Amy Lowell.” The Gay & Lesbian Review Worldwide, vol. 23, no. 4, 2016, p. 39. Literature Resource Center, https://link-gale-com.proxy055.nclive.org/apps/doc/A457693694/GLS?u=durham_tccl&sid=GLS&xid=eb0be6c0. Accessed 10 Sept. 2019.