Maria White Lowell

About

American poet, abolitionist, and teetotaler whose poem, 'The Grave of Keats,' was published by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Her other poems include 'The Morning-Glory' and 'The Alpine Shepherd.'

Before Fame

She was born into an intellectual family and, as a young girl, lived an ascetic lifestyle at an Ursuline Convent.

Trivia

Emily Dickinson knew Lowell's work and may have found poetic inspiration in it. Lowell's poem "The Sick Room," in fact, is quite "Dickinsonian" in tone and content.

Family Life

She married fellow poet James Russell Lowell in 1844. Sadly, only one of the couple's four children survived to adulthood.

Associated With

She was an ancestor of poet Amy Lowell.