Comparing Amy Lowell's 'Sword Blades And Poppy Seeds'

Liam Dvorak

Mr. Otton

English IV

November 15, 2016

Amy Lowell

Although it may be hard to recognize at first, works of poetry almost always have a gender assigned to them. It was often thought that imagism should be considered a feminine form of poetry, and that haikus were more or less masculine. Amy Lowell is able to combine these two while keeping their original forms in tact. She created a new form of a lesbian-feminist haiku. An example of this is her piece Sword Blades and Poppy Seeds. This piece details Lowell’s interaction with Ada Russell, and how she felt about her in an emotional way. (Iadonisi 123-124) Lowell’s translations of Oriental pieces in her Fir-Flower Tablets often had a female narrator who was longing for her husband.

Ayscough on collaborations dealing with the Chinese arts. They were thought to have interpreted the characters in a pictorial way, leading to multiple interpretations of what they thought the original author was depicting. This can be seen in Lowell’s Fir Flower Tablets, where she translated a Chinese work to say green heavens when the original work said blue skies. This could potentially change the meaning of the piece. (Schwartz 229) What was peculiar about Fir Flower Tablets was that Miss Lowell knew no chinese, and refused to learn it. She instead relied upon Mrs. Ayscough and her chinese mentor to translate the works in the literal sense. Amy would then try and re-write the poems so as to try and recreate the author 's original intentions.(Yoshihara 114) Chinese critics, like Hsin-Hai, thought that throughout her poems, Lowell often does not represent the correct and original speaker. Hsin-Hai states that Lowell’s form of portrait painting makes it difficult for people to truly understand the original work. Instead, Amy treated the works as her own poems, giving her own words. This makes the pieces as much as the original author’s as it is hers. (Schwartz 229)

A not well known theme of some of Amy’s works is one of something small being part of something much bigger. Lowell is able to use her writing to style to make it appear as though someone experiences a sense of plight by using a pinched quality of speech. In her poem “That Day That Was That Day”, Amy describes the life of Minnie trough three interludes. These interludes seem as though they are just providing an overall sketch, however, when placed in the proper setting these interludes reveal a greater depiction. This depiction is one of a meager life being placed into a cosmic setting. (Ruihley