Memories Of West Street And Lepke Comments

'hanging like an oasis in his air/ of lost connections' Every syllable in this poem is perfect. If you can't understand the references, just listen to the music. It is a milestone in 20th Century American lit. Sad that the benighted readers have given it a '6.' It should be a 12 on poemhunter's 1 to 10 scale.

In “Memories of West Street and Lepke” (1959) by Robert Lowell (1917-1977) , the speaker is imprisoned for a year as a “fire-breathing Catholic C.O.[ conscientious objector]” (14) along with Louis “Lepke” Buchalter, the boss of the infamous who organized crime gang murder. In this poem, Lowell is aiming for the irony of a situation in which the speaker, who refuses to kill, is incarcerated in the same place as a man who has been convicted for killing. Moreover, while the speaker in prison, he observes by shockingly looking at the way the prisoners being treated where they were “flabby, bald, lobotomized…” (24) .

In “Memories of West Street and Lepke” (1959) by Robert Lowell (1917-1977) , the speaker is imprisoned for a year as a “fire-breathing Catholic C.O.[ conscientious objector]” (14) along with Louis “Lepke” Buchalter, the boss of the infamous who organized crime gang murder. In this poem, Lowell is aiming for the irony of a situation in which the speaker, who refuses to kill, is incarcerated in the same place as a man who has been convicted for killing. Moreover, while the speaker in prison, he observes by shockingly looking at the way the prisoners being treated where they were “flabby, bald, lobotomized…” (24) .