Amy Lowell was one of the most vibrant Imagist poets, and her command of language was what made her "new" type of poetry pop to life. Don't expect that here. "A Dome of Many Colored Glass" was her first collection, displaying all kinds of more traditional poetry -- sonnets, lyrical poems and children's ditties.Each type of poem has its own section. The first section is for lyrical poetry: songlike poems about Venetian glass, passionate prayer, birds and mythical golden apples. At times the rhyming gets a bit strained ("Orbed, and glittering, and pendent... Not one missing, still transcendent"), but her rich wording and varied styles cover up many of the flaws ("The air was of rose and gold/ Arabesqued with the song of birds/Who, swinging unseen under leaves,/Made music more eager than words.")After the lyrical poems come the sonnets. In many sonnets, her style seems restricted by the strict limits of the sonnet. However, her rich style does peek out in poems like "Monadnock in Early Spring," as well as quite a few poems that ponder life's meaning. And gardens, too. Lowell then includes an ode to "The Boston Athenaeum," and winds it up with some simplistic children's poems ("Sea Shell, Sea Shell,/ Sing me a song, O Please!/A song of ships, and sailor men,/And parrots, and tropical trees.")Amy Lowell's verse has a kind of quiet grace to it -- she focuses a lot on nature, and very personal feelings. While her poetry was never fully recognized during her short lifetime, it has gained more notice over time. This is partly due to Lowell's status as a woman poet, but more because of the quality of her verse.Her poetry is also deeply evocative. Like Wallace Stevens, Lowell used words to paint vivid portraits, including color and texture ("Sodden and spongy"). Often the images she conjures are a bit fantastical, which only adds to the appeal of her poetry ("The stars hang thick in the apple tree"; "The air was of rose and gold"). Her tone tends to be a bit formal, sprinkled with "thous" and "thees" every now and then."Dome of Many-Colored Glass" does tend to be much more sentimental and conventional than Lowell's later work, which is its sole weakness -- it wasn't all that Lowell could have made it. Since it was her first book, Lowell hadn't yet graduated to the sharper, brighter "Sword Blades and Poppy Seed" which was published two years later. But taken on its own "Dome" is still quite beautiful.While "Dome of Many Colored Glass" was not the best of Lowell's poetry collections, it's still vibrant and quite lovely, if you get past some very strained rhymes and slightly soppy subject matter
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