Robert Lowell (1917–1977), poet, playwright, and translator, was born in Boston to parents who could both trace their ancestors back to early New England families. Educated at Harvard University and Kenyon College, Lowell befriended Randall Jarrell and John Crowe Ransom while an undergraduate. Both writers were active in defining the New Criticism, which focused on verbal nuances and thematic structure of poems rather than on biographical or social backgrounds.

In 1940 Lowell converted for a short time to Roman Catholicism. The conflict between his Bostonian upbringing and Catholicism is portrayed in his first volume of verse, Land of Unlikeness (1944). In Lord Weary's Castle, which won the Pulitzer Prize in 1947, rebellion against "Old Law, imperialism, militarism, capitalism, Calvinism, Authority, the Father, the 'proper Bostonians,' [and] the rich" is a dominant theme. In the mid-1960s Lowell turned to plays to develop the theme of the individual's relation to history. His translation of Aeschylus's Prometheus Bound (1969) also appeared during this period. Lowell's experiences of political activism during the Vietnam War are described in the sonnets of Notebook 1967–68. One of three volumes of poetry published in 1973, The Dolphin, which won Lowell a second Pulitizer Prize, professes that love makes freedom meaningful and allows for human growth. His last collection of poetry, Day by Day (1977), is an elegiac and deeply personal volume that provides quick glimpses at Lowell's family and friends, the horrors of his manic-depressive illness, and the joys of his recoveries.