Table Of ContentStudies of
DYLAN THOMAS
ALLEN GINSBERG
SYLVIA PLATH
AND
ROBERT LOWELL
Other Books by Louis Simpson
POETRY
The Arrivistes: Poems 1.940-1.949
Good News of Death and Other Poems
A Dream of Governors
At the End of the Open Road
Selected Poems
Adventures of the Letter I
Searching for the Ox
PROSE
]ames Hogg: A Critical Study
Riverside Drive
An Introduction to Poetry
North of Jamaica
Three on the Tower: The Lives and Works of
Ezra Pound, T. S. Eliot, and William Carlos Williams
Studies of
DYLAN THOMAS
ALLEN GINSBERG
SYLVIA PLATH
AND
ROBERT LOWELL
LOUIS SIMPSON
~
~
© Louis Simpson 1978
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 1978 978-0-333-27396-8
All rights reserved. No part of this publication
may be reproduced or transmitted, in any form
or by any means, without permission
First published in the United States of America 1978
under the title A Revolution in Taste
First published in the United Kingdom 1979
Published by
THE MACMILLAN PRESS LTD
London and Basingstoke
Associated companies in Delhi
Dublin Hong Kong Johannesburg Lagos
Melbourne New York Singapore Tokyo
British Ubrary Cataloguing in Publication Data
Simpson, Louis
Studies of Dylan Thomas, Allen Ginsberg,
Sylvia Plath and Robert Lowell
1. Ginsberg, Allen-Criticism and interpreta
tion
2. Plath, Sylvia-Criticism and interpretation
3. Thomas, Dylan- Criticism and interpreta
tion
4. Lowell, Robert-Criticism and interpretation
I. Title
811'.5'409 PS3513.174Z/
ISBN 978-1-349-04966-0 ISBN 978-1-349-04964-6 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-1-349-04964-6
This book is sold subject
to the standard conditions
of the Net Book Agreement
Acknowledgements
The author gratefully acknowledges permission to reprint excerpts from the follow
ing works.
Kingsley Amis, A Case of Samples. Copyright © 1.956 by Kingsley Amis, by permis
sion of Curtis Brown Ltd.
W. H. Auden, Collected Poems. Copyright © 1.976 by Edward Mendelson, William
Meredith and Monroe K. Spears, executors of the Estate of W. H. Auden, by permis
sion of Random House, Inc. and Faber and Faber, Ltd.
T. S. Eliot, Collected Poems, 1.901.-1.962. Copyright © 1.970 by Esme Valerie Eliot,
by permission of Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Inc. and Faber and Faber, Ltd.
Allen Ginsberg, Empty Mirror. Copyright © 1.961. by Allen Ginsberg, by permission
of Corinth Books.
Allen Ginsberg, The Gates of Wrath. Copyright © 1.972 by Allen Ginsberg, by
permission of Gray Fox Press.
Allen Ginsberg, Howl and Other Poems. Copyright© 1.956, 1.959 by Allen Ginsberg,
by permission of City Lights Books. .
Allen Ginsberg, Kaddish and Other Poems. Copyright © 1.961. by Allen Ginsberg, by
permission of City Lights Books.
Allen Ginsberg, Planet News. Copyright© 1.968 by Allen Ginsberg, by permission
of City Lights Books.
Allen Ginsberg, Journals. Copyright © 1.977 by Allen Ginsberg, by permission of
Grove Press, Inc.
Ted Hughes, The Hawk in the Rain. Copyright © 1.956, 1.957 by Ted Hughes, by
permission of Harper & Row, Publishers, Inc. and Faber and Faber, Ltd.
Robert Lowell, Day by Day. Copyright © 1.975, 1.977 by Robert Lowell, by permis
sion of Farrar, Straus and Giroux, Inc. and Faber and Faber, Ltd.
Robert Lowell, For the Union Dead. Copyright © 1.956, 1.960, 1.961., 1.962, 1.963,
1.964 by Robert Lowell, by permission of Farrar, Straus and Giroux, Inc. and Faber
and Faber, Ltd.
Robert Lowell, Imitations. Copyright © 1.958, 1.959, 1.960, 1.961. by Robert Lowell,
by permission of Farrar, Straus and Giroux, Inc. and Faber and Faber, Ltd.
Robert Lowell, History. Copyright © 1.967, 1.968, 1.969, 1.970, 1.973 by Robert
Lowell, by permission of Farrar, Straus and Giroux and Faber and Faber, Ltd.
Robert Lowell, Life Studies. Copyright © 1.956, 1.959 by Robert Lowell, by per
mission of Farrar, Straus and Giroux, Inc. and Faber and Faber, Ltd.
Robert Lowell, Land of Unlikeness. Copyright 1.944 by Robert Lowell. Copyright
renewed © 1.972 by Robert Lowell.
Robert Lowell, Lord Weary's Castle and the Mills of the Kavanaughs. Copyright©
1.944, 1.946, 1.947, 1.950, 1.951. by Robert Lowell, by permission of Harcourt Brace
Jovanovich, Inc.
Robert Lowell, Near the Ocean. Copyright © 1.963, 1.965, 1.966, 1.967 by Robert
Lowell, by permission of Farrar, Straus and Giroux, Inc. and Faber and Faber, Ltd.
Robert Lowell, Notebook 1967-68. Copyright © 1969 by Robert Lowell, by per
mission of Farrar, Straus and Giroux, Inc. and Faber and Faber, Ltd.
Robert Lowell, Notebook (rev. ed.). Copyright © 1967, 1968, 1970 by Robert
Lowell, by permission of Farrar, Straus and Giroux, Inc. and Faber and Faber, Ltd.
Robert Lowell, Poems 1938-1949. Copyright © 1950 by Robert Lowell, by permission
of Faber and Faber, Ltd:
Robert Lowell, Phaedra and Figaro (with Jacques Barzun) (Phaedra, a Verse Trans
lation of Racine's Phedre, English ed.). Copyright © 1960, 1961 by Robert Lowell,
by permission of Farrar, Straus and Giroux, Inc. and Faber and Faber, Ltd.
Edna St. Vincent Millay, Collected Poems. Copyright © 1917, 1945 by Edna St.
Vincent Millay, by permission of Norma Millay Ellis.
Wilfred Owen, Collected Poems. Copyright © 1946, 1963 by Chatto & WUtdus Ltd.,
by permission of New Directions Publishing Corporation and The Owen Estate and
Chatto & Windus Ltd.
Sylvia Plath, "Admonition," "Doom of Exiles," "I Thought I Could Not Be Hurt,"
and "Mad Girl's Love Song." By permission of Olwyn Hughes.
Sylvia Plath, Ariel. Copyright © 1965 by Ted Hughes, by permission of Harper
and Row, Publishers, Inc., and Olwyn Hughes.
Sylvia Plath, The Colossus and Other Poems. Copyright © 1957, 1962 by Sylvia
Plath, by permission of Random House, Inc., Alfred A. Knopf Inc. and Faber and
Faber, Ltd.
Sylvia Plath, Crossing the Water. Copyright© 1971 by Ted Hughes, by permission
of Harper and Row, Publishers, Inc, and Olwyn Hug~es.
Letters Home by Sylvia Plath, selected and edited by Aurelia Schober Plath. Copy
right © 1975 by Aurelia Schober Plath, by permission of Harper and Row Publishers,
Inc. and Faber and Faber, Ltd.
Theodore Roethke, "Prognosis," copyright 1941 by Theodore Roethke, and "The
Long Waters," copyright © 1962 by Beatrice Roethke as Administratrix of the Estate
of Theodore Roethke, from the book The Collected Poems of Theodore Roethke,
reprintl!d by permission of Doubleday & Co., Inc. and (by permission of) Faber
and Faber, Ltd.
Holly Stevens, editor, The Palm at the End of the Mind. Copyright © 1967, 1969,
1971 by Holly Stevens, by permission of Random House, Inc.
The Collected Poems of Wallace Stevens, by permission of Faber and Faber, Ltd.
Allen Tate, Collected Poems. Copyright © 1952, 1953, 1970, 1977 by Allen Tate.
Copyright 1931, 1932, 1937, 1948 by Charles Scribner's Sons. Renewal Copyright ©
1959, 1960, 1965 by Allen Tate, by permission of Farrar, Straus and Giroux, Inc.
Paul Ferris, Dylan Thomas. Copyright © 1977 by Paul Ferris and Hodder and
Stoughton, by permission of David Higham Associates Ltd. and Trustees for the
Copyrights of Dylan Thomas.
Daniel Jones, My Friend Dylan Thomas. Copyright © 1977 by Daniel Jones, by
permission of J. M. Dent and Sons, Ltd. and David Higham Associates, Ltd., and the
Trustees for the copyrights of the Dylan Thomas Estate.
Ralph Maud, editor, The Notebooks (Poet in the Making, English ed.). Copyright©
1965, 1966, 1967 by the Trustees for the Copyrights of Dylan Thomas, by permission
of New Directions Publishing Corporation and J. M. Dent and Sons, Ltd., and the
Trustees for the Copyrights of Dylan Thomas.
Daniel Jones, editor, The Poems of Dylan Thomas. Copyright 1952 by Dylan
Thomas, 1967 by the Trustees for the Copyrights of Dylan Thomas, by permission of
New Directions Publishing Corporation and J. M. Dent and Sons, Ltd. and the
Trustees for the Copyrights of Dylan Thomas.
Mark Van Doren, Selected Poems. Copyright © 1954 by Mark Van Doren, by per
mission of Hill and Wang (now a division of Farrar, Straus and Giroux, Inc.).
William Carlos Williams, Collected Later Poems. Copyright 1948 by William Carlos
Williams, by permission of New Directions Publishing Corporation.
William Carlos' Williams, Paterson Book IV. Copyright© 1951 by William Carlos
Williams, by permission of New Directions Publishing Corporation.
This book is dedicated to
Robert Levine
and
RobertS. Liebert,
who, with their friendship
and advice, helped me to write it.
Contents
FOREWORD xi
The Color of Saying 1
"The Eye Altering Alters All" 43
Black, Banded with Yellow 83
Robert Lowell's Indissoluble Bride 129
AFTERWORD 169
NOTES 171
BIBLIOGRAPHY 187
INDEX 193
There can be no interpreting the masterpieces of the
past unless one judges them from the standpoint of
those who wrote them, and not from the outside, from
a respectful distance, and with all academic deference.
-PROUST, Contre Sainte-Beuve
