Introduction

Amy Lowell's, most famous poem ‘The Sisters’ (1925) concludes with the speaker dismissing three dead female poetic precursors (Sappho, Elizabeth Barrett Browning and Emily Dickinson) from her home:

But while Lowell shuts out her ghostly ‘older sisters’, Lowell's, partner, Ad Dwyer Russell, who inspired many of her poems, remains in her home. This chapter will show that although imaginary precursors such as Sappho made Lowell feel ‘sad and self-distrustful’, contemporary muses bolstered her sense of poetic identity in a number of significant ways. Through an examination of Lowell's, key muses – the Italian tragedian Eleonora Duse and Lowell's, life partner, Russell – this chapter highlights Lowell's, negotiation of the public and the private, contrasting the actress with the domestic muse. Lowell's, attraction towards and utilization of these two women as muses reveals much about her attitude towards her own public persona as a poet, and her private identity as a deeply committed lover. Lowell's, dual identity was often a source of tension and anxiety, but also in many ways represents the underlying motivation for her writing.