{"id":7026,"date":"2015-08-05T22:34:35","date_gmt":"2015-08-06T06:34:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/legendsrevealed.com\/entertainment\/?p=7026"},"modified":"2015-08-05T22:41:55","modified_gmt":"2015-08-06T06:41:55","slug":"did-robert-lowell-once-live-in-a-tent-on-his-mentors-lawn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/legendsrevealed.com\/entertainment\/2015\/08\/05\/did-robert-lowell-once-live-in-a-tent-on-his-mentors-lawn\/","title":{"rendered":"Did Robert Lowell Once Live in a Tent on His Mentor’s Lawn?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Here is the latest in a series of examinations into urban legends related to poetry and poets and whether they are true or false. Click here<\/a> for an archive of all poetry legends featured so far.<\/p>\n

POETRY URBAN LEGEND<\/span><\/u>: Robert Lowell famously responded literally to a joking suggestion by famed poetry professor Allen Tate that Lowell could live in a tent on Tate’s yard. <\/p>\n

Robert Lowell, the father of “confessional poetry” was one of the most celebrated poets in the history of American poetry. The Boston-born poet was the sixth U.S. poet laureate and a two-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize.<\/p>\n

\"IH022407\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Lowell originally studied at Harvard University, but he changed his mind when he met famed English author Ford Madox Ford at a party in Boston after Lowell’s second year in school. The Good Soldier novelist remarked that he was headed to go stay with famed poet Allen Tate (the SECOND U.S. poet laureate) in Ohio, where Tate and John Crowe Ransom were teaching at Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio. <\/p>\n

Lowell actually ended up in Ohio before Ford. This led to an amazing exchange between he and the Tate’s that Lowell later recounted to the Paris Review in 1961…
\n<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a terrible piece of youthful callousness. They had one Negro woman who came in and helped, but Mrs. Tate was doing all the housekeeping. She had three guests and her own family, and was doing the cooking and writing a novel. And this young man arrived, quite ardent and eccentric. I think I suggested that maybe I\u2019d stay with them. And they said, \u201cWe really haven\u2019t any room, you\u2019d have to pitch a tent on the lawn.\u201d So I went to Sears, Roebuck and got a tent and rigged it on their lawn. The Tates were too polite to tell me that what they\u2019d said had been just a figure of speech. I stayed two months in my tent and ate with the Tates.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Eventually Lowell moved to dormitory housing and was soon on his way to a storied career in poetry. <\/p>\n

Pretty amazing, huh? <\/p>\n

The legend is…<\/p>\n

STATUS<\/span><\/u>: True<\/p>\n

Feel free (heck, I implore you!) to write in with your suggestions for future installments! My e-mail address is bcronin@legendsrevealed.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Here is the latest in a series of examinations into urban legends related to poetry and poets and whether they are true or false. Click here for an archive of all poetry legends featured so far. POETRY URBAN LEGEND: Robert Lowell famously responded literally to a joking suggestion by famed poetry professor Allen Tate that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_options":[]},"categories":[28,17],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7MjBq-1Pk","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":7028,"url":"https:\/\/legendsrevealed.com\/entertainment\/2009\/04\/19\/poetry-urban-legends-history\/","url_meta":{"origin":7026,"position":0},"title":"Poetry Urban Legends History","date":"April 19, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Here are quick descriptions of each of the previous editions of Poetry Urban Legends Revealed. To see if they are true or false, you have to click on the link! 1. Oliver St. John Gogarty wrote a poem dedicated to the returning Irish soldiers from the Boer War that contained\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Archives"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4132,"url":"https:\/\/legendsrevealed.com\/entertainment\/2012\/11\/28\/did-richard-wilbur-write-the-lyrics-to-glitter-and-be-gay\/","url_meta":{"origin":7026,"position":1},"title":"Did Richard Wilbur Write the Lyrics to “Glitter and Be Gay”?","date":"November 28, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Here is the latest in a series of examinations into urban legends related to opera and operettas and whether they are true or false. OPERA URBAN LEGEND: Richard Wilbur, two-time Pulitzer Prize winner for Poetry and the second United States Poet Laureate, actually wrote the lyrics to a number of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Grab Bag Legends"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5477,"url":"https:\/\/legendsrevealed.com\/entertainment\/2013\/11\/28\/did-wallace-stephens-convert-to-catholicism-before-he-died\/","url_meta":{"origin":7026,"position":2},"title":"Did Wallace Stephens Convert to Catholicism Before He Died?","date":"November 28, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Here is the latest in a series of examinations into urban legends related to poetry and poets and whether they are true or false. Click here for an archive of all poetry legends featured so far. POETRY URBAN LEGEND: Poet Wallace Stevens converted to Catholicism before he died. 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POETRY URBAN LEGEND: Oliver St. John Gogarty wrote a poem dedicated to the returning\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Grab Bag Legends"","img":{"alt_text":"gogarty","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/legendsrevealed.com\/entertainment\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/05\/gogarty.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":5456,"url":"https:\/\/legendsrevealed.com\/entertainment\/2013\/11\/25\/was-the-famed-poet-marianne-moore-hired-to-name-the-car-that-would-ultimately-be-known-as-the-edsel\/","url_meta":{"origin":7026,"position":4},"title":"Was the Famed Poet Marianne Moore Hired to Name the Car That Would Ultimately be Known as the Edsel?","date":"November 25, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Here is the latest in a series of examinations into urban legends related to poetry and poets and whether they are true or false. Click here for an archive of all poetry legends featured so far. POETRY URBAN LEGEND: Marianne Moore was asked to come up with a name for\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Grab Bag Legends"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4051,"url":"https:\/\/legendsrevealed.com\/entertainment\/2012\/11\/07\/was-djuna-barnes-novel-nightwood-named-by-t-s-eliot\/","url_meta":{"origin":7026,"position":5},"title":"Was Djuna Barnes’ Novel, Nightwood, Named By T.S. Eliot?","date":"November 7, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Here is the latest in a series of examinations into urban legends related to poetry and poets and whether they are true or false. Click here for an archive of all poetry legends featured so far. POETRY URBAN LEGEND: The famed poet T.S. 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