Last Looks, Last Books: The Binocular Poetry of Death
Helen Vendler, A. Kingsley Porter University Professor, Harvard University
This six-part lecture series considers the final works of five modern American poets, as they "take the last look"—reconciling the interface of life and death, without the promise of an afterlife. The accompanying publication, Last Looks, Last Books: Stevens, Plath, Lowell, Bishop, Merrill, is available for purchase in the Gallery Shop.

Part 1: Introduction: Sustaining a Double View

Wallace Stevens, "The Hermitage at the Center," from The Collected Poems of Wallace Stevens (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1954).

Samuel Taylor Coleridge, "Constancy to an Ideal Object," from The Poetical Works of S. T. Coleridge: Including the Dramas of Wallenstein, Remorse, and Zapolya (London: William Pickering, 1828).

Emily Dickinson, "Because I could not stop for Death," from The Poems of Emily Dickinson, edited by Thomas H. Johnson (Cambridge, MA: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1951).

Edmund Waller, "On the Last Verses in the Book," from The Oxford Book of English Verse, edited by Christopher Ricks (New York: Oxford University Press, 1999).

Wallace Stevens, "To an Old Philosopher in Rome," from The Collected Poems of Wallace Stevens.

John Donne, "A Hymn to God My God, in My Sickness," from The Complete English Poems of John Donne, edited by C. A. Patrides (London: J. M. Dent and Sons, 1985).

John Donne, "A Hymne to God the Father," from The Complete English Poems of John Donne.

George Herbert, "Death," from The Works of George Herbert, edited by F. E. Hutchinson (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1941).

Part 2: Facing the Worst: Wallace Stevens, "The Rock"

Wallace Stevens, "Final Soliloquy of the Interior Paramour," from The Collected Poems of Wallace Stevens (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1954).

Wallace Stevens, "The Plain Sense of Things," from The Collected Poems of Wallace Stevens.

Wallace Stevens, "World Without Peculiarity," from The Collected Poems of Wallace Stevens.

Wallace Stevens, "Burghers of Petty Death," from The Collected Poems of Wallace Stevens.

Wallace Stevens, "The Region November," from Opus Posthumous, edited by Milton J. Bates (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1989).

Wallace Stevens, "The Man with the Blue Guitar," from The Collected Poems of Wallace Stevens.

Wallace Stevens, "Madame La Fleurie," from The Collected Poems of Wallace Stevens.

Wallace Stevens, "The Dove in Spring," from The Collected Poems of Wallace Stevens.

Wallace Stevens, Part I of "The Rock: Seventy Years Later," from The Collected Poems of Wallace Stevens.

Part 3: The Contest of Melodrama and Restraint: Sylvia Plath, "Ariel"

Sylvia Plath, "The Trial of Man," from The Collected Poems, edited by Ted Hughes (New York: Harper & Row / London: Faber and Faber, 1981).

Sylvia Plath, "Sonnet: To Eva," from The Collected Poems.

Sylvia Plath, "Notes to a Neophyte," from The Collected Poems.

Sylvia Plath, "Metamorphoses of the Moon," from The Collected Poems.

Sylvia Plath, "Electra on Azalea Plath," from The Collected Poems.

Sylvia Plath, "Waking in Winter," from The Collected Poems.

Sylvia Plath, "Ariel," from The Collected Poems.

Sylvia Plath, "The Courage of Shutting Up," from The Collected Poems.

Sylvia Plath, "Among the Narcissi," from The Collected Poems.

Sylvia Plath, "Berck-Plage (Part 4, Part 6, Part 7)," from The Collected Poems.

Sylvia Plath, "Words," from The Collected Poems.

Sylvia Plath, "Poppies in October," from The Collected Poems.

Part 4: Death by Subtraction: Robert Lowell, "Day by Day"

Robert Lowell, "Home," from Collected Poems, edited by Frank Bidart and David Gewanter (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2001).

William Wordsworth, The Prelude, 1799, 1805, 1850, Norton Critical Edition, edited by Jonathan Wordsworth, M. H. Abrams, and Stephen Gill (New York: W. W. Norton, 1979).

Robert Lowell, "Jean Stafford, a Letter," from Collected Poems.

Robert Lowell, "Epilogue," from Collected Poems.

Robert Lowell, "Unwanted," from Collected Poems.

Robert Lowell, "Shifting Colors," from Collected Poems.

Robert Lowell, "Our Afterlife II," from Collected Poems.

Robert Lowell, "Logan Airport, Boston," from Collected Poems.

Robert Lowell, "Death of a Critic," from Collected Poems.

Robert Lowell, "The Withdrawal," from Collected Poems.

Robert Lowell, "To Mother," from Collected Poems.

Robert Lowell, "Turtle," from Collected Poems.

Robert Lowell, "Off Central Park," from Collected Poems.

Robert Lowell, "Ear of Corn," from Collected Poems.

Robert Lowell, "Marriage," from Collected Poems.

Robert Lowell, "Our Afterlife I," from Collected Poems.

Robert Lowell, "Suicide," from Collected Poems.

Robert Lowell, "Fishnet," from Collected Poems.

Robert Lowell, "For Sheridan," from Collected Poems.

Part 5: Caught and Freed: Elizabeth Bishop, "Geography III"

Elizabeth Bishop, "Breakfast Song," from Edgar Allen Poe and the Juke-Box, edited and annotated by Alice Quinn (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2006).

Elizabeth Bishop, "Sonnet," from The Complete Poems, 1927–1979 (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1983).

Elizabeth Bishop, "North Haven," from The Complete Poems, 1927–1979.

Elizabeth Bishop, "One Art," from The Complete Poems, 1927–1979.

Elizabeth Bishop, "Night City," from The Complete Poems, 1927–1979.

Elizabeth Bishop, "Crusoe in England," from The Complete Poems, 1927–1979.

Part 6: Self-Portraits While Dying: James Merrill, "A Scattering of Salts"

James Merrill, "A Look Askance," from Collected Poems, edited by J. D. McClatchy and Stephen Yenser (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2001).

James Merrill, "Alabaster," from Collected Poems.

James Merrill, "The Instilling," from Collected Poems.

James Merrill, "Pearl," from Collected Poems.

James Merrill, "b o d y," from Collected Poems.

James Merrill, "Self-Portrait in Tyvek™ Windbreaker," from Collected Poems.

James Merrill, "An Upward Look," from Collected Poems.

Alfred, Lord Tennyson, "In Memoriam," from The Poems of Tennyson, edited by Christopher Ricks (Harlow, UK: Longmans, 1969).

James Merrill, "Christmas Tree," from Collected Poems.

Copyright Credits

Elizabeth Bishop, "Breakfast Song," from Edgar Allen Poe and the Juke-Box by Elizabeth Bishop, edited and annotated by Alice Quinn. Copyright © 2006 by Alice Helen Methfessel. Used with permission of Carcanet Press Limited and Farrar, Straus and Giroux, LLC. All rights reserved.
CAUTION: Users are warned that this work is protected under copyright laws and downloading is strictly prohibited. The right to reproduce or transfer the work via any medium must be secured with Farrar, Straus and Giroux, LLC.

Elizabeth Bishop, "Sonnet," "North Haven," "One Art," "Night City," and "Crusoe in England," from The Complete Poems 1927–1979 by Elizabeth Bishop. Copyright © 1979, 1983 by Alice Helen Methfessel. Used by permission of Farrar, Straus and Giroux, LLC. All rights reserved.
CAUTION: Users are warned that this work is protected under copyright laws and downloading is strictly prohibited. The right to reproduce or transfer the work via any medium must be secured with Farrar, Straus and Giroux, LLC.

Emily Dickinson, "Because I could not stop for Death," used by arrangement with the publishers and the Trustees of Amherst College. From The Poems of Emily Dickinson, edited by Thomas H. Johnson. Cambridge, Mass.: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press. Copyright © 1951, 1955, 1979, 1983 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College. All rights reserved.

All works by Robert Lowell from Collected Poems by Robert Lowell. Copyright © 2003 by Harriet Lowell and Sheridan Lowell. Used by permission of Farrar, Straus and Giroux, LLC. All rights reserved.
CAUTION: Users are warned that this work is protected under copyright laws and downloading is strictly prohibited. The right to reproduce or transfer the work via any medium must be secured with Farrar, Straus and Giroux, LLC.

All works by James Merrill from Collected Poems by James Merrill. Copyright © 2001 by the Literary Estate of James Merrill at Washington University, used with permission of the Wylie Agency LLC

All works by Sylvia Plath from The Collected Poems, edited by Ted Hughes. Copyright © 1960, 1965, 1971, 1981 by the Estate of Sylvia Plath. Editorial material copyright © 1981 by Ted Hughes. Used by permission of HarperCollins Publishers and Faber and Faber Ltd.

Wallace Stevens, "The Hermitage at the Center," "To an Old Philosopher in Rome," "The Plain Sense of Things," "World Without Peculiarity," "Burghers of Petty Death," "Madame La Fleurie," "The Dove in Spring," and Part I of "The Rock: Seventy Years Later," from The Collected Poems of Wallace Stevens by Wallace Stevens, copyright 1954 by Wallace Stevens and renewed 1982 by Holly Stevens. Reproduced by permission of Pollinger Limited and The Estate of Wallace Stevens. Used by permission of Alfred A. Knopf, a division of Random House, Inc.

Wallace Stevens, "The Region November," from Opus Posthumous by Wallace Stevens, edited by Milton J. Bates. Copyright © 1989 by Holly Stevens. Preface and Selection copyright © 1989 by Alfred A. Knopf, a division of Random House, Inc. Copyright © 1957 by Elsie Stevens and Holly Stevens. Copyright renewed 1985 by Holly Stevens