Poet's Corner

Amy Lowell

Read her poem "Generations"

(1874-1925)
Nationality: American
Career: Poet, biographer, critic, and essayist

A descendent of one of the oldest and most respected families in New England, Amy Lowell was born in Brookline, Massachusetts, on February 9, 1874, to Augustus Lowell and Katherine Bigelow Lawrence Lowell. Raised on a ten-acre estate, Lowell first received tutoring at home by governesses before she attended private schools in Boston until the age of seventeen. Around 1902 Lowell decided to seriously study poetry in hopes of becoming a poet herself. Houghton Mifflin published her first collection of poems in 1912, but the work received little notice from critics. Not until she traveled to London in the summer of 1913 to meet Ezra Pound, Hilda Doolittle (H. D.), and other poets involved in Imagism, did Lowell begin to receive both recognition and notoriety for her work. Upon returning to Boston she became an important promoter for the Imagist movement in America, helping edit, publish, and support Imagist poets and anthologies. Throughout the rest of her life, Lowell continued to champion the works of American poets and introduce the public to contemporary poetry. Afflicted by chronic hernia problems since 1916, Lowell underwent numerous corrective operations, but she never let her illness interfere with her poetry. On May 10, 1925, she cancelled a lecture tour after suffering from her most serious hernia attack. Two days later, Lowell died on her Brookline estate of a cerebral hemorrhage.

Source: Exploring Poetry, Gale.
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