Robert Lowell: A Biography Read Online Free Page B

tribe. Girls had not so far featured in the Lowell curriculum (not even, as with drunkenness , under the heading of “Experience”): the fear—as Lowell later described it—was that sex might enervate the group’s elevated purposes . But what if Anne was “serious” as well as pretty? At hissecond meeting with her, Lowell showed her a poem he had written “about sitting in a rowing boat waiting for a bite,” and she was somewhat scornful of it (indeed, she claimed much later to have found it “the most pathetic, wretched thing”). Afterwards, the poet regretfully reported back to Parker: “She won’t do.” And Anne (on hearing this from Parker) remembers wondering: “Is this some new kind of meatball?” As for Parker, he was not at all dismayed—he had originally thought of Anne as his girl.
    It seems, however, that Anne was pretty enough to be given one more chance, and serious enough to accept it. An invitation was sent, via Parker, for her to have supper with “the boys.” Lowell had by this time extended his group to include Blair Clark’s brother, Bill, and a promising young Harvard poet, Harry Brown. All five of them were present for supper in a Cambridge restaurant, with Anne the only female guest: the idea was to see how Lowell’s candidate would stand up to a feast of brilliant chat. This time, Anne was willing to be dazzled:
    The talk was all about the kings and queens of England. And they were talking about them as if they were so-and-so at the Porcellian Club. If I hadn’t had such a terrible background, it would have just seemed regular. But to someone who’d been with such gross people, that Social Register grossity, to have this light conversation. There was nothing pedantic about it. It was completely spontaneous and humorful and yet learned in the right way…. I felt the happiest I think I’ve ever felt in my entire life.
    The following weekend Lowell visited Anne at her grandmother’s house at Appleton Farms near Ipswich, and during the course of an early evening walk in the garden he asked her—with much gravitas —if he could become one of her “suitors.”
    And I said “Yes.” And then we walked back to the house. And it was still light. It was June. We sat downstairs for a while. I thought I was in a dream, a very gentle dream. We went upstairs to the landing outside my room and there was a sofa there. And I think it was then he kissed me, maybe before—probably downstairs. I don’t know if it was then or not that he told me he didn’t like kissing. I guess he’d never kissed anyone before. But that was very disturbing because kissing was all I was interested in, with anybody. It was my main thing. But it’s true, there was very little kissing after that.
    For Lowell, though, this first kiss was of almost ceremonial significance ; it meant, quite simply, that he had “become thoroughly and firmly engaged, almost married.” He gave Anne his grandfather’s watch to mark their (at this stage) secret pact. And immediately he made a start on her reeducation. With Parker or Clark in tow, he began to pay nightly visits to Anne’s house and would there stage readings of Milton, Donne and Shakespeare—and consume a hearty dinner. “My father hated their guts because they didn’t even say ‘Good evening, Mr. Dick.’ They sat at his table and acted as if he didn’t exist.” But Anne was still in her “gentle dream”:
    I kept thinking, “I’m engaged. I’m engaged .” It seemed very unreal. “I’m engaged.” Hardly thinking who to, because who was he? What did I know except that he could talk about kings and queens?
    She resolved to study, because her fiancé wanted her to study, and if being a good fiancée meant nightly readings from Samson Ago nistes ,then she was happy to put up with it. Lowell had indeed acquired a new, and utterly devout, disciple.
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    For Lowell, Anne’s house was more than just a night school or a place to eat; it was also a sanctuary