Denise Levertov

Priscilla Denise Levertov (24 October 1923 – 20 December 1997) was a British-born naturalised American poet. She was heavily influenced by the Black Mountain poets and by the political context of the Vietnam War, which she explored in her poetry book The Freeing of the Dust. She was a recipient of the Lannan Literary Award for Poetry.

Early life and influences

Levertov was born and grew up in Ilford, Essex, England. Her mother, Beatrice Adelaide (née Spooner-Jones) Levertoff, came from a small mining village in North Wales. Her father, Paul Levertoff, had been a teacher at Leipzig University and as a Russian Hasidic Jew was held under house arrest during the First World War as an "enemy alien" by virtue of his ethnicity. He emigrated to the UK and became an Anglican priest after converting to Christianity. In the mistaken belief that he would want to preach in a Jewish neighbourhood, he was housed in Ilford, within reach of a parish in Shoreditch, in East London. Levertov, who was educated at home, showed an enthusiasm for writing from an early age and studied ballet, art, piano and French as well as standard subjects. She wrote about the strangeness she felt growing up part Jewish, German, Welsh and English, but not fully belonging to any of these identities. She notes that it lent her a sense of being special rather than excluded: "[I knew] before I was ten that I was an artist-person and I had a destiny."

When Levertov was five years old she declared she would be a writer. At the age of 12, she sent some of her poems to T. S. Eliot, who replied with a two-page letter of encouragement. In 1940, when she was 17, Levertov published her first poem. During the Blitz, Levertov served in London as a civilian nurse. Her first book, The Double Image, was published six years later. In 1947, she met and married American writer Mitchell Goodman and moved with him to the United States the following year. Levertov was a founding member of the anti-war collective RESIST along with Noam Chomsky, Mitchell Goodman, William Sloane Coffin, and Dwight Macdonald.

Much of the latter part of Levertov's life was spent in education. After moving to Massachusetts, Levertov taught at Brandeis University, MIT, Tufts University, and the University of Massachusetts Boston. She also lived part-time in Palo Alto and taught at Stanford University, as professor of English (professor emeritus). There she befriended Robert McAfee Brown, a professor of religion at Stanford and pastor. Franciscan Murray Bodo also became a spiritual advisor to her. In 1984 she uncovered notebooks of her mother and father, resolving some personal and religious conflict. In 1989, she moved from Somerville, Massachusetts, to Seattle, Washington, and lived near Seward Park on Lake Washington, with a view of her beloved Mount Rainier. On the West Coast, she had a part-time teaching stint at the University of Washington and for 11 years (1982–1993) held a full professorship at Stanford University, where she taught in the Stegner Fellowship program. In 1984, she received a Litt. D. from Bates College. After retiring from teaching, she travelled for a year, doing poetry readings in the US and Britain. In 1990, she joined the Catholic Church at St. Edward’s Parish, Seattle; she became involved in protests of the US attack on Iraq. She retired from teaching at Stanford.

In 1994, Levertov was diagnosed with lymphoma, and also suffered pneumonia and acute laryngitis. Despite this she continued to lecture and participate at national conferences, many on spirituality and poetry. In February 1997, she experienced the death of Mitch Goodman. Through her father she was exposed to both Judaism and Christianity. Levertov always believed that her culture and her family roots had inherent value to herself and her writing. Furthermore, she believed that she and her sister had a destiny pertaining to this.

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 was developed progressively throughout her poetry. This was the pilgrimage/spiritual journey of Levertov towards the deep spiritual understanding and truth in her last 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, which changes and grows when it hears the music of Orpheus. This is a metaphor of spiritual growth. The growth of the tree is like the growth of 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. Also among her themes were 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. 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, but doubt constantly plagues her.

In her earlier religious poems Levertov searches for meaning in life. She explores God as he relates to nothing(ness) and everything. In her later poetry, a shift can be seen. A Door in the Hive and Evening Train are full of poems using images of cliffs, edges, and borders 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 suggest that nothing is a part of God. "Nothingness" and darkness are no longer just reasons to doubt and agonise 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.

Legacy

Levertov wrote and published 24 books of poetry, as well as criticism and translations. She also edited several anthologies. Among her many awards and honours, she received the Shelley Memorial Award, the Robert Frost Medal, the Lenore Marshall Prize, the Lannan Award, a Catherine Luck Memorial Grant, a grant from the National Institute of Arts and Letters, and a Guggenheim Fellowship.

Levertov's "What Were They Like?" is currently included in the Pearson Edexcel GCSE (9–1) English Literature poetry anthology, and the Conflict cluster of the OCR GCSE (9-1) English Literature poetry anthology, Towards a World Unknown (2020).

Works

Primary works

: The Double Image (London: The Cresset Press, 1946)

: Here and Now (San Francisco, Calif.: City Lights Pocket Book Shop, The Pocket Poets Series: Number Six, 1956)

: Overland to the Islands (Highlands, N.C.: Jonathan Williams, Publisher, 1958)

: With Eyes at the Back of Our Heads (New York: New Directions Publishing, 1959)

: The Jacob's Ladder (New York: New Directions Publishing, 1961)

: O Taste and See: New Poems (New York: New Directions Publishing, 1964)

: The Sorrow Dance (New York: New Directions Publishing, 1967)

: Relearning the Alphabet (New York: New Directions Publishing, 1970)

: To Stay Alive (New York: New Directions Publishing, 1971).

: Footprints (New York: New Directions Publishing, 1972).

: The Freeing of the Dust (New York: New Directions Publishing, 1975).

: Life in the Forest (New York: New Directions Publishing, 1978).

: Collected Earlier Poems 1940–1960 (New York: New Directions Publishing, 1979).

: Pig Dreams: Scenes from the Life of Sylvia (Woodstock, Vt.: The Countryman Press, 1981), Pastels by Liebe Coolidge.

: Candles in Babylon (New York: New Directions Publishing, 1982).

: Poems 1960–1967 (New York: New Directions Publishing, 1983).

: Oblique Prayers: New Poems (New York: New Directions Publishing, 1984).

: Poems 1968–1972 (New York: New Directions Publishing, 1987).

: Breathing the Water (New York: New Directions Publishing, 1987).

: A Door in the Hive (New York: New Directions Publishing, 1989).

: Evening Train (New York: New Directions Publishing, 1992).

: A Door in the Hive / Evening Train (1993).

: Sands of the Well (New York: New Directions Publishing, 1996).

: This Great Unknowing: Last Poems (New York: New Directions Publishing, 2000), With a Note on the Text by Paul A. Lacey.

: Poems 1972–1982 (New York: New Directions Publishing, New Directions Paperbook NDP913, 2001).

Collections

"The Collected Poems of Denise Levertov (NY: New Directions Publishing Corporation, 2013). Edited and Annotated by Paul A. Lacey and Anne Dewey, with an Introduction by Eavan Boland, Afterword by Paul A. Lacey & Anne Dewey.
The Life Around Us: Selected Poems on Nature (1997).
Making Peace (NY: New Directions Publishing Corporation, New Directions Bibelot NDP1023, 2005). Edited, with an Introduction, by Peggy Rosenthal
The Stream & the Sapphire: Selected Poems on Religious Themes (1997).
Selected Poems (UK: Bloodaxe Books, 1986).

:This is not to be confused with the 2002 US volume of the same title. From Neil Astley, of Bloodaxe Books:

:"Selected Poems (1986) had no editor as such: the book was edited by Bloodaxe Books in consultation with Denise Levertov, with helpful suggestions made by Linda Anderson and Cynthia Fuller. It was originated by Bloodaxe Books for publication in the UK and there was no corresponding US edition. It had no introduction or preface."

Selected Poems (NY: New Directions Publishing Corporation, 2002). Preface by Robert Creeley, edited with an afterword by Paul A. Lacey
New Selected Poems (UK: Bloodaxe Books, 2003). Preface by Robert Creeley, edited with an afterword by Paul A. Lacey

:The latter two volumes are identical in contents. From Neil Astley, of Bloodaxe Books:

:"New Selected Poems was first published in the US by New Directions in 2002 under the title Selected Poems, and published by Bloodaxe Books in the UK in 2003 under the title New Selected Poems to avoid confusion with the previous UK edition called Selected Poems. It was edited with an afterword by Paul A. Lacey and has a preface by Robert Creeley. So it is the same book as New Directions' Selected Poems."

Light Up the Cave (NY: New Directions Publishing Corporation, 1981).
Her poems appeared in literary magazines, including Earth's Daughters.

Prose

The Poet in the World (NY: New Directions Publishing Corporation, 1973).
Light Up the Cave (NY: New Directions Publishing Corporation, 1981).
New & Selected Essays (NY: New Directions Publishing Corporation, 1992).
Tesserae: Memories & Suppositions (NY: New Directions Publishing Corporation, 1995).

Letters

The Letters of Denise Levertov and William Carlos Williams. Edited by Christopher MacGowan (1998).
The Letters of Robert Duncan and Denise Levertov (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2004). Edited by Robert J. Bertholf & Albert Gelpi.

Translations

Black Iris: Selected Poems by Jean Joubert (Port Townsend, WA: Copper Canyon Press, 1988), Translated from the French by Denise Levertov.
In Praise of Krishna: Songs from the Bengali (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, Anchor Books, 1967), Translated by Edward C. Dimock, Jr. and Denise Levertov, with an introduction and notes by Edward Dimock, Jr., Illustrated by Anju Chaudhuri
No Matter No Fact (NY: New Directions Publishing Corporation, February 1988), Alain Bosquet. Translated by Samuel Beckett, Eduard Roditi, Denise Levertov, and Alain Bosquet.
Selected Poems by Eugene Guillevic (NY: New Directions Publishing Corporation, 1969)
White Owl and Blue Mouse (Cambridge, MA: Zoland Books, 1991), Jean Joubert, Illustrations by Michel Gay.

Edited by Denise Levertov

The Collected Poems of Beatrice Hawley, The (Cambridge, MA: Zoland Books, 1989). Edited and with an Introduction by Denise Levertov.
Out of the War Shadow: An Anthology of Current Poetry (NY: War Resisters League, 1967), compiled and edited by Denise Levertov
Songs from an Outcast (Los Angeles, CA: UCLA American Indian Studies Center, 2000), John E. Smelcer.

References

Interviews

Conversations with Denise Levertov (Jackson, MS: University Press of Mississippi, Literary Conversations Series, 1 November 1998). Edited by Jewel Spears Brooker.
"Con-versing with Denise Levertov" (Kalliope: A Journal of Woman's Art and Literature, Spring/Summer 1979), William Slaughter.

Bibliography

A Bibliography of Denise Levertov (New York: Phoenix Book Shop, Paper, 1972), Compiled by Robert A. Wilson.
Denise Levertov: An Annotated Primary and Secondary Bibliography (NY: Garland Publishing, Garland Reference Library of the Humanities, Vol. 856, November 1988), Liana Sakelliou-Schultz.

Criticism

Biography

Green, Dana. Denise Levertov: A Poet's Life (Chicago: University of Illinois, 2012). First full biography of the author.
Hollenberg, Donna Krolik, A Poet's Revolution: The Life of Denise Levertov (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2013). More authoritative biography of the author.

Notes

External links

Profile and poems at the Academy of American Poets
Profile and poems at the Poetry Foundation
Profile at Modern American Poetry
A Denise Levertov Chronology
Denise Levertov Page on New Directions Publishing