Life Studies Quotes

“We are all old-timers,
each of us holds a locked razor.”
― Robert Lowell, Life Studies

“Dearest, I cannot loiter here
in lather like a polar bear.”
― Robert Lowell, Life Studies

“Naval officers were not mother's sort; very few people were her sort in those days, and that was her trouble - a very authentic, human, and plausible difficulty, which made Mother's life one of much suffering. She did not have the self-assurance for wide human experience; she needed to feel liked, admired, surrounded by the approved and familiar. Her haughtiness and chilliness came from apprehension. She would start talking like a grande dame and then stand back rigid and faltering, as if she feared being crushed by her own massively intimidating offensive.”
― Robert Lowell, Life Studies

“Then the dry road dust rises to whiten
the fatigued elm leaves-
the nineteenth century, tired of children, is gone.
They're all gone into a world of light; the farm's my own.”
― Robert Lowell, Life Studies