Mr. Edwards and the Spider

“After the Surprising Conversions” by Robert Lowell (1946)

Like “Mr. Edwards and the Spider,” “After the Surprising Conversions” was published in Lord’s Weary Castle (1946). Jonathan Edwards is again the speaker, but the perspective comes from later in his career as Edwards reflects on the aftermath of the Great Awakening, including the suicide of Edwards’s uncle, Josiah Hawley.

“Jonathan Edwards in Western Massachusetts“ by Robert Lowell (1962)

The speaker reflects on Edwards’s life, from childhood to his final ministry preaching to a native American tribe, the Houssatonnic Indians.

“The Worst Sinner” By Robert Lowell

In Lowell’s fourth poem on Edwards, Lowell imagines Edwards’s doubts and anxieties, fearing himself to be “worse than any man that ever breathed” (Line 6).

Robert Lowell: Setting the River on Fire, A Study of Genius, Mania, and Character by Kay Jamison Redfield (2017)

Kay Jamison Redfield, a professor of psychiatry and author of other books on bipolar disorder, uses Robert Lowell’s bipolar disorder, breakdowns, and treatments as a lens through which to view his life and his work.

Words in Air: The Complete Correspondence between Elizabeth Bishop and Robert Lowell by Elizabeth Bishop and Robert Lowell (2010)

Elizabeth Bishop and Robert Lowell were both major American poets and lifelong friends.