Near the Ocean was published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux in 1967 and occupies a transitional position in Lowell’s career — between the personal revelations of Life Studies and For the Union Dead and the historical sweep of Notebook 1967–68 and History. The collection is divided into two sections: five original poems in loose couplets and a group of translations/imitations from Horace, Juvenal, Dante, and Quevedo.
The Collection
The original poems are set along the New England coast — specifically Castine, Maine, where Lowell and Hardwick spent summers. The sea provides a constant, indifferent backdrop to poems about marriage, aging, the Vietnam War, and the erosion of the liberal ideals that Lowell’s class had once embodied.
“Waking Early Sunday Morning” — the collection’s opening and finest poem. Beginning with a salmon’s upstream leap (“O to break loose, like the chinook”), the poem moves through a Sunday morning’s meditations — on faith, on political impotence, on the Vietnam War — to arrive at a vision of the earth “pulsing through the summer without me.” The poem’s long, measured couplets give it a Marvellian dignity that never becomes pompous.
“Fourth of July in Maine” — a domestic poem that expands into political territory. The American holiday occasion allows Lowell to examine patriotism, decay, and the distance between American ideals and American reality.
“Near the Ocean” — the title poem, dedicated to Elizabeth Hardwick. A poem about marriage in its middle period — not the crisis of separation but the quieter difficulty of sustained intimacy. The ocean’s proximity provides metaphors for depth, danger, and continuity.
The translations in the second half — particularly the versions of Juvenal’s Tenth Satire and Horace’s Odes — demonstrate Lowell’s characteristic method of “imitation”: taking a classical text and remaking it in contemporary American terms, preserving the spirit while abandoning literal fidelity.
Illustrations
The first edition was illustrated with drawings by Sidney Nolan, the Australian painter, adding a visual dimension unusual for Lowell’s collections. Nolan’s bold, gestural images complement the poems’ combination of formal restraint and emotional intensity.
Publication History
The first edition was published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux, New York, in 1967. First printings are identified by:
- FSG imprint on title page
- “First printing, 1967” on copyright page
- Sidney Nolan illustrations
- Cloth binding with illustrated dust jacket
Collecting Near the Ocean
First edition (FSG, 1967): Fine copies in dust jacket bring $100–$250. The Nolan illustrations make the physical book attractive.
Signed copies bring $400–$1,000.
The collection is less sought than Life Studies or For the Union Dead but is valued for “Waking Early Sunday Morning,” which many critics consider one of Lowell’s greatest individual poems.