(1) Compare the ruined men in Lowell’s “The Quaker Graveyard in Nantucket” and Randall Jarrell’s “The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner.” Determine how both poets augment a fear of death with images of disintegrating bodies.
(2) Discuss the various human relationships in “Memories of West Street and Lepke.” What is Lowell’s opinion of people considered as “fringe elements” of society?
(3) Isolate elements of Elizabeth Bishop’s “The Armadillo” that carry over to Lowell’s “Skunk Hour.”
(4) Summarize sources of moral decline in Lowell’s “The Mills of the Kavanaghs” and “Falling Asleep over the Aeneid.” Contrast the poet’s judgments against his forebears with William Faulkner’s assessments of the Compson family in the novel The Sound and the Fury.
(5) Analyze depictions of alcoholism in Lowell’s “For John Berryman” and E. A. Robinson’s “Mr. Flood’s Party.” Determine how drinking can liberate at the same time that it enslaves.
