Denise Levertov

Portrait taken by Elsa Dorfman (http://elsa.photo.net)

Denise Levertov

24 October 1923 - 20 December 1997) was a British-born American poet.

Early Life & Influences

Denise Levertov was born in Ilford, Essex, England, in October of 1923. Her mother, Beatrice Spooner-Jones Levertoff was Welsh. Her father, Paul Levertoff, immigrated to England from Germany. He was a Russian Hasidic Jew who later became to be an Anglican parson when he converted to Christianity. Levertov was educated at home, had an early childhood enthusiasm for writing. She claims to have declared her desire to be a writer by age five. At the age of 12 sent some of her poetry to T. S. Eliot who replied with a two page letter of encouragement. In 1940, Levertov published her first poem at the age of 17. She served as a civilian nurse in London during the bombings of World War II. Her first book, The Double Image, was published 6 years later. In 1947 Denise married an American writer, Mitchell Goodman, (later they were divorced) and moved to the United States the following year. They had a son, Nickolai, and lived primarily in New York City and in Maine during the summer. In 1955, she became a naturalized citizen of the United States. Here Levertov was influenced by the Black Mountain Poets. Levertov began to leave her British roots behind when she published her first American book of poetry, Here and Now. Her poem “With Eyes at the Back of our Heads” established her as a great American poet.

Later Life Career & Work

During the 1960’s and 70’s Levertov was very politically active in her works. She became the poetry editor for The Nation magazine. Denise Levertov was both a feminist and activist, and joined the War Resister’s League. She wrote many poems pertaining to the Vietnam war including “The Sorrow Dance” about the death of her sister. Much of the latter part of Levertov’s life was spent in education. After moving to Massachusettes, Levertov taught at Brandeis, MIT and Tufts. She was a part-time teacher at the University of Washington. For eleven years, from 1982 to 1993 Levertov was a full professor at Stanford University. In 1984 Levertov received a Litt.D. from Bates College. After retiring, she traveled for a year doing poetry readings in the United States, as well as in England. In 1997, Denise Levertov died at the age of 74, from complications due to lymphoma.

Political War Poetry

Both politics and war are a big part of Levertov's poetry. Denise Levertov had an active role in two major wars during her lifetime. She worked as a civilian nurse in England during WWII, and was a political activist in the United States during the Vietnam War. Levertov was published in the Black Mountain Review during the 1950’s, but denied any formal relations with the group. She began to develop her own lyrical style of poetry through those influences. In the 1960’s and 70’s Denise became very politically active. She was both a feminist and activist. She became the war poetry editor for “The Nation” magazine, as well as joined the War Resister’s League. She felt it was part of the calling to point out the injustice of the Vietnam War. She not only wrote poetry about the war, but she actively participated in rallies, even reading poetry at some. Some of her war poetry was published in her 1971 book To Stay Alive. “Staying Alive” is a collection of letters, newscasts, diary entries, and conversations that she used in protest of the war. Levertov approaches the war by making her theme about the individual vs. the group (government). Her theory is the development of personal voice in mass culture. In her poetry she tries to advocate for community/group change via the personal/private imagination of the individual. She tries to emphasize the person and individual as a powerful advocate of change. She tries to tie personal experience to justice and reform of society.

Another major theme in Levertov’s war poetry was suffering. Her poems, “Poetry, Prophecy, Survival”, “Paradox and Equilibrium”, and “Poetry and Peace: Some Broader Dimensions” are written about war, injustice, and prejudice. In her “Life at War” Denise Levertov attempts to use imagery in her poetry to show the disturbing violence of the Vietnam War. Throughout these poems, she addresses human acts of violence and savagery, yet tries to bring grace into the equation. She attempts to mix the beauty of language and the ugliness of human horror. The themes of her poems, especially “Staying Alive” focus on both the cost of war and the pain the Vietnamese were suffering because of it. In her prose work, The Poet in the World, she writes that violence is an outlet. Levertov’s first successful Vietnam poetry was her book Freeing of the Dust. Some of the themes of this book of poems are the experience of the North Vietnamese, and distrust of people. She attacks the United States pilots in her poems for dropping bombs. Overall, her war poems incorporate suffering to show that violence has become and everyday occurrence. After years, of writing such poetry, Levertov eventually comes the conclusion that beauty and poetry and politics can’t go together (Dewey). This opened the door wide for her religious themed poetry, in the later part of Denise’s life.

Religious Influences

One of the major themes of Denise Levertov’s poetry was her religiosity in them. From a very young age Levertov was influenced by religion. From her father she was exposed to both Judaism and Christianity. Denise always believed that her culture and her family roots had inherent value to herself and her writing. She also believed that her and her sister had always had a destiny pertaining to this. When Levertov moved to the United States, she became influenced by the Black Mountain Poets, especially William Carlos Williams, the experimentation of Ezra Pound, and the mysticism of Charles Olson. She was also exposed to the Transcendentalism of Thoreau and Emerson. Although all of these things shaped her poetry, her conversion to Christianity in 1984 was the main influence in her religious writing.

Religious Themes

Denise Levertov wrote many poems with religious themes throughout her career. These poems range from religious imagery to implied metaphors of religion. One particular theme had been developed progressively throughout her poetry. This was the pilgrimage/spiritual journey of Levertov. Her earlier poems progress into deep spiritual understanding and truth in her recent poems. One of her earlier poems is “A Tree Telling of Orpheus”, from her book Relearning the Alphabet. This poem uses the metaphor of a tree. The tree changes and grows when it hears the music of Orpheus. This is a metaphor to spirituality. Levertov was incorporating the growing to show how the tree is like faith, and as the tree goes through life we also go through life on a spiritual journey. Much of Levertov’s religious poetry was concerned with respect for nature and life. A lot of her themes were also about nothingness and absence. In her earlier poems something is always lacking, searching, and empty. In “Work that Enfaiths” Levertov begins to confront this “ample doubt” and her lack of “burning surety” in her faith (Gallant). The religious aspect of this is the doubt vs. light debate. Levertov cannot find a balance between faith and darkness. She goes back and forth between the glory of God and nature, and has that doubt that constantly plagues her. Her earlier religious poems are searching for meaning in life. She explores God as he relates to nothing, yet everything. As her poetry becomes more recent, a shift can be seen. Some of her more recent books, A Door in the Hive, and Evening Train are full of poems that start to show a change. In these works cliffs, edges, and borders are all used to push for change in life. Once again, Levertov packs her poetry with metaphors. She explores the idea that there can be peace in death. She also begins to tie together that nothing is a part of God. "Nothingness" and darkness are no longer just reasons to doubt and agonize over. “St. Thomas Didymus” and “Mass” show this growth, as they are poems that lack her former nagging wonder and worry. In Evening Train, Levertov’s poetry is highly religious. She writes about experiencing God. These poems are breakthrough poems for her (Gallant). She writes about a mountain. This mountain becomes a metaphor for life and God. When clouds cover a mountain, it’s still huge and massive and in existence. God is the same way, even when He is clouded, she says we know this. Her poems tend to shift away from constantly questioning religion and simply accepting it. In her most recent work, in “The Tide” Levertov writes about accepting faith and that not knowing answers is okay. She uses many paradoxes about faith in her poetry here. It marks the end of her "spiritual journey" (Gallant).

Another way to look at Denise Levertov’s religious poetry is to reflect on her views on life and religion. Levertov’s heavy religious writing began at her conversion to Christianity in 1984. She writes a lot of metaphysical poetry to show her religious views. Denise begins to use Christianity to link culture and community together. In her poem “Mass” she writes about how the Creator is defined by His creation. She talks a lot about nature and individuals. In her most recent works, Levertov uses Christianity as a bridge in society. She sees that individuals and the public are related. She explores these relations in her poetry as they relate to Christians. She believes that the hostile environment of community can be changed by Christian values (Dewey). Levertov works this into her poems.

Accomplishments

In her lifetime Denise Levertov wrote and published 20 books of poetry, criticism, translations, and also edited several anthologies. Levertov also received many tangible rewards for her poetry. She was awarded the Shelley Memorial Award, the Robert Frost Medal, the Lenore Marshall Prize, the Lannan Award, the Guggenheim Fellowship and National Institute of Arts and Letters grant.

Bibliography

The Academy of American Poets < http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/41>

Gallant, James. "ENTERING NO-MAN'S-LAND: THE RECENT RELIGIOUS POETRY OF DENISE LEVERTOV." Renascence 50(1998): 122-134.

Dewey, Anne. "Find More Like This"THE ART OF THE OCTOPUS": THE MATURATION OF DENISE LEVERTOV'S POLITICAL VISION." Renascence 50(1998): p65-81.

Washington University Libraries: www.library.wustl.edu/units/spec/manuscripts/mlc/levertov/levertov1/htm Wilson, Robert A. A Bibliography of Denise Levertov. (New York: Phoenix Book Shop, 1972. Printing of American Authors, Vol. 3. (Detroit: Gale Research Co., 1977-1979).

Poetry

The Double Image (1946)

Here and Now (1956)

Overland to the Islands (1958)

With Eyes at the Back of Our Heads (1959)

The Jacob's Ladder (1961)

O Taste and See: New Poems (1964)

The Sorrow Dance (1967)

Life At War (1968)

Relearning the Alphabet (1970)

To Stay Alive (1971)

Footprints (1972)

The Freeing of the Dust (1975)

Life in the Forest (1978)

Collected Earlier Poems 1940-1960 (1979)

Candles in Babylon (1982)

The May Mornings(1982)

Poems 1960-1967 (1983)

Oblique Prayers: New Poems (1984)

Poems 1968-1972 (1987)

Breathing the Water (1987)

A Door in the Hive (1989)

Evening Train (1992)

The Sands of the Well (1996)

The Life Around Us: Selected Poems on Nature (1997)

The Stream & the Sapphire: Selected Poems on Religious Themes (1997)

What Were They Like

Prose

The Poet in the World (1973)

Light Up the Cave (1981)

New & Selected Essays (1992)

Tesserae: Memories & Suppositions (1995)

The Letters of Denise Levertov and William Carlos Williams (1998) Edited by Christopher MacGowan.

The Letters of Robert Duncan and Denise Levertov (Robert J. Bertholf & Albert Gelpi, eds.) (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2004)

Anthologies

Black Iris: Selected Poems by Jean Joubert (1989) In Praise of Krishna: Songs From the Bengali (1967) Selected Poems by Eugene Guillevic (1969)

References

Keillor, Garrison. Writer's Almanac, October 24, 2006.

< http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/41>

External links

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