Robert Traill Spence Lowell, IV (March 1, 1917 – September 12, 1977) was an American poet.

Among his relatives were James Russell Lowell, Percival Lowell and Amy Lowell.

Quotes

• A brackish reach of shoal off Madaket--
  The sea was still breaking violently and night
  Had steamed into our North Atlantic Fleet,
  When the drowned sailor clutched the drag-net. Light
  Flashed from his matted head and marble feet,
  He grappled at the net
  With the coiled, hurdling muscles of his thighs:
  The corpse was bloodless, a botch of reds and whites,
  Its open, staring eyes
  Were lustreless dead-lights
  Or cabin-windows on a stranded hulk
  Heavy with sand.
  • Poem: The Quaker Graveyard in Nantucket

• Once fishing was a rabbit's foot--
  O wind blow cold, O wind blow hot,
  Let suns stay in or suns step out:
  Life danced a jig on the sperm-whale's spout--
  The fisher's fluent and obscene
  Catches kept his conscience clean.
  • Poem: The Drunken Fisherman

External links