‘In Sleep, in Thunder’: Elliott Carter'S Portrait of Robert Lowell

Tempo ◽  
1982 ◽  
pp. 2-9
Author(s):  
David Schiff
Keyword(s):  
American Poetry ◽  
Elizabeth Bishop ◽  
New Work ◽  
John Ashbery ◽  
Robert Lowell ◽  
Contemporary American Poetry ◽  
Initial Choice

Elliott Carter's new work for the London Sinfonietta, In Sleep, In Thunder, is a setting of six poems by Robert Lowell scored for tenor and fourteen instrumentalists and composed ‘in memory of the poet and friend’. With it Carter completes a triptych on contemporary American poetry that began with A Mirror on Which to Dwell (six poems of Elizabeth Bishop) and continued with Syringa, on the poem of that name by John Ashbery. Since Lowell himself suggested to the composer the initial choice of Elizabeth Bishop's poetry it seems appropriate that Lowell should receive a parallel (though posthumous) tribute.

Carter vs. Poets (Round 1)

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Schiff
Keyword(s):  
Vocal Music ◽  
American Poetry ◽  
Elizabeth Bishop ◽  
Experimental Poetry ◽  
John Ashbery ◽  
Hart Crane ◽  
Robert Lowell ◽  
Complex Relation ◽  
Wide Range

With A Mirror on which to Dwell, composed in 1975, Carter returned to vocal music and to modern American poetry. Mirror, to poems of Elizabeth Bishop, was soon followed by Syringa (John Ashbery) and In Sleep, In Thunder (Robert Lowell). These three works explore a wide range of expressive territory. Bishop and Lowell were close to Carter in age, while Ashbery was twenty years younger. The two older poets pursue an intimate confessional style, while Ashbery’s far more experimental poetry derives from French surrealism. Bishop’s poetry is precise and observant, while Lowell’s seems to teeter on the verge of mental collapse. All three works reveal a complex relation between composer and poets, as does the single orchestra work of this period, A Symphony of Three Orchestras, which summed up and concluded Carter’s engagement with Hart Crane.

Self and Sensibility in Contemporary American Poetry

1988 ◽  
Vol 18 ◽  
pp. 365
Author(s):  
Margaret Dickie ◽  
Charles Altieri ◽  
R. W. (Herbie) Butterfield
Keyword(s):  
American Poetry ◽  
Contemporary American Poetry

The Harvard Book of Contemporary American Poetry

1986 ◽  
Vol 60 (2) ◽  
pp. 314
Author(s):  
George Economou ◽  
Helen Vendler
Keyword(s):  
American Poetry ◽  
Contemporary American Poetry

1. American poetry’s two characteristics

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-18
Author(s):  
David Caplan
Keyword(s):  
American Poetry ◽  
Langston Hughes ◽  
Wallace Stevens ◽  
The Other ◽  
Elizabeth Bishop ◽  
Anne Bradstreet ◽  
American Experience ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
The One

“American poetry’s two characteristics” explains the two characteristics which mark American poetry. On the one hand, several of its major figures promoted American poetry as essentially different from any other nation’s. Although the reasons they offer vary, they typically claim that American experience demands a different kind of expression. Such poets advocate for novelty, for a break with what is perceived to be outmoded and foreign. On the other hand, American poetry might be more rightly called profoundly transnational. American poetry often welcomes techniques, styles, and traditions originating from outside it. The two characteristics do not exist separately from each other. Rather, they work in a productive dialectic, inspiring both individual accomplishment and the broader field. Examples include Anne Bradstreet, Elizabeth Bishop, Wallace Stevens, and Langston Hughes.

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