Lord Weary's Castle: The Mills of the Kavanaughs (Harvest/HBJ Book) [Paperback]

Robert Lowell (Author)

Book Description

Series: Harvest/HBJ Book | Publication Date: March 20, 1968

A combined edition of the poet's early work, including Lord Weary's Castle, a collection of forty-two short poems, which won the 1947 Pulitzer Prize, and The Mills of the Kavanaughs, a narrative poem of six hundred lines, and five other long poems.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Collection of poems by Robert Lowell, published in 1946. It was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1947. Some of the poems reflect Lowell's New England roots; others have Roman Catholic themes, and still others recall events that occurred during World War II. -- The Merriam-Webster Encyclopedia of Literature

About the Author

Robert Traill Spence Lowell IV (March 1, 1917 – September 12, 1977) was an American poet, considered the founder of the confessional poetry movement. He was appointed the sixth Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress in 1946.[1] 

Product Details

• Paperback: 132 pages
• Publisher: Mariner Books (March 20, 1968)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0156535009
• ISBN-13: 978-0156535007
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.3 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.1 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #618,294 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Lord Weary's Castle: Challenging and obscure. The Mills of the Kavanaughs: Less complex., April 22, 2006

By 

Michael Wischmeyer (Houston, Texas) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Lord Weary's Castle: The Mills of the Kavanaughs (Harvest/HBJ Book) (Paperback)

Lord Weary's Castle (awarded Pulitzer Prize of Poetry in 1947) and The Mills of the Kavanaughs established Robert Lowell's early fame. Literary critics widely praised Lowell for his technical brilliance, metrical complexity, and verbal ambiguity - perhaps explaining why Lowell's work is so often challenging, even obscure. I found reading Lord Weary's Castle is not unalike from studying mathematics, slightly too advanced mathematics. Sometimes I would see my way forward after returning again and again to a difficult point, but not infrequently Lowell's meaning remained elusive, just out of reach.

Disaffection, mistrust, anger, and savage criticism (one critic calls it apocalyptic rage) are often tightly linked to personal elements. For example, Lowell, in opposition to his family's New England Protestantism tradition, converted to Catholicism in 1940, and his deep religiosity - combined with his disillusion with mankind - dominate much of this poetry. He specifically targets modern civilization, materialism, and US war policy, particularly the bombing of German cities. (During World War II Lowell served a jail sentence as a conscientious objector.)

Lord Weary's Castle consists of 42 shorter poems. As a tentative guide, I mention that At the Indian Killer's Grave and Christmas Eve Under Hooker's Statue are examples of his disaffected critique of American history; The Exile's Return, War, and The Dead in Europe illustrate Lowell's anti-war sentiments; and The Holy Innocents, Christmas in Black Rock, and Mr. Edwards and the Spider combine moral passion with disillusion.

The second collection The Mills of the Kavanaughs (1951), is comprised of six longer poems, dramatic monologues that are structurally less complex, and more readily comprehended. This is mathematics that I have studied earlier and only need a review.

The title poem, The Mills of the Kavanaughs, is a New England widow's lament for her recently deceased husband. A short introductory paragraph clarifies the setting for this long poem. Falling Asleep over the Aeneid is an old man's dream that muddles his reading of Virgil with his childhood memories of the death of his uncle, a young officer in the Civil War. The third poem, Her Dead Brother, is an unsettling memory of incest.

Mother Marie Therese - death by drowning in 1912 is a poignant, mournful memory of a past now nearly forgotten. Thanksgiving's Over is another dream, this one recalling a wife that committed suicide while living in a sanatorium. The Fat Man in the Mirror is a short, sadly humorous questioning of just how a young, playful boy became the man in the mirror.

The poem David and Bathsheba in the Public Gardens somewhat obscurely contrasts the thoughts of two lovers. (Years later Lowell published a new version in his collection titled For The Union Dead. He wrote: "The Public Garden is a recasting and clarification of an old confusing poem of mine called David and Bathsheba in the Public Garden.")

3.0 out of 5 stars A Bit Clunky by Today's standards, November 6, 2008

By 

Eric Maroney (Trumansburg, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Lord Weary's Castle: The Mills of the Kavanaughs (Harvest/HBJ Book) (Paperback)

but what does today really know? Robert Lowell's first book of poems, Lord Weary's Castel, is dense with allusion and firmly situated in time, place, and even space. The collection is full of references to the American New England tradition, especially in its Puritan and Maritime manifestations. As such many of the poems have an arcane, lurching sensibility, perhaps an attempt on Lowell's behalf to recreate the laconic moral world view of Old New England. This is a challenging set of poems to read. They are not sparkling or new in there use of language and/or of aesthetic viewpoint; readers should approach these poems with sleeves rolled up and get ready to work at giving them meaning.

2 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Not a book to be read quickly, April 4, 2000

By 

"vikingbob" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Lord Weary's Castle: The Mills of the Kavanaughs (Harvest/HBJ Book) (Paperback)

Even for a book of poetry, this one is very dense and requires a lot of mental activity. Lowell was a very cerebral, academic poet, and it's hard to find two lines in a row in this book that don't contain some allusion to classical mythology, religion, or European culture. Nevertheless, Lowell's work somehow manages to avoid conventionality. Just be prepared to do some thinking when reading this book.