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Amy Lowell

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Samantha Monnett
English 11
Literature of America
April 27, 2012
The Life of a So Called Lesbian Amy Lowell was born in Brookline, Massachusetts on February 9, 1874. She was the daughter of Augustus Lowell and Katherine Bigelow Lawrence. Both her mother and father were from New England aristocrats. Aristocrats are wealthy and prominent members of society. Her father, Augustus, was a businessman, civic leader, and horticulturalist. Lowell’s mother, Katherine, was an accomplished musician and linguist. Lowell was, although, considered as “almost disreputable,” poets ran in the Lowell family. James Russell Lowell, a first cousin, and later Robert Lowell was one of the many poets her family had to offer. Being a part of a …show more content…

Lowell’s trip to Egypt was for “health” reasons. Doctors felt that the Egyptian heat and a diet of nothing but tomatoes and asparagus could cure her obesity. The so called “cure” almost killed her it resulted in a prolonged nervous collapse. Lowell’s father died in 1900, with that happening she was taken to Sevenels. She bought a summer home in Dublin, New Hampshire, which she named “Broomley Lacey.” Dublin was home to the MacDowell Artists’ Colony as well as to other painters and sculptors. Following Augustus’ death Lowell assumed his civic responsibilities in Brookline. In 1902 she spoke against the reappointment of the superintendent of the Brookline public school system. The man was too old to continue. Lowell was the first woman in her family to make a public speech. Even though the people booed her, she continued to speak with directness and eventually won the people’s applause as well as her point. After her speech Lowell became a member of the executive committee of the Brookline Education Society and chair of the Library Board. October 1902 Lowell became a poet. Her interest in verse had been expanding beyond her childhood, also fueled by her reading Leigh Hunt’s Imagination and Fancy; or, Selections from the English Poets, which she found at the very top shelf in her father’s library. The volume was a shock to Lowell it opened a door that would have remained shut. She became

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