Denise Levertov (1923–1997)

Denise Levertov is one of those poets that I appreciate as much for the person she was as I do the poetry she wrote. This collection spans her lifetime and allows the reader to trace the development of her spirituality, in particular (and less so the political activism which I admired). I suppose I would connect with her more if that development had brought her somewhere other than the Catholic Church, but there is a fine sensibility communicated, one that allows you to get past your own show more spiritual biases and enjoy her vision. For example, "And then once more/ all is eloquent--rain,/ raindrops on branches, pavement brick/ humbly uneven, twigs of storm-stripped hedge revealed/ shining deep scarlet, speckled whistler shabby and/ unconcerned, anything--all/ utters itself, blessedness/ soaks the ground and its wintering seeds." show less

Though this collection doesn't quite live up to the standard set by some of Levertov's other more well-known works, her voice and style are still so clear and striking as to make it a wonderful read. Grounded in images of nature, all of the poems are enjoyable, and some of the works are so striking as to bear immediate re-reading.

Even the casual poetry reader will discover poems and lines well worth their time here, and whether readers are looking for works to provoke thought or works to show more simply enjoy and absorb, the collection is worth wandering through.

Recommended. show less

The career of the late Denise Levertov was marked by an extraordinary fecundity of voice, subject, and expression. To read this slim but cannily assembled Selected Poems is to trace the half-century development of a poetic sensibility that was fearless and wide-ranging to a degree, I think, unmatched by any American poet of the 20th century save, perhaps, Stevens and Lowell. Like De Kooning or Yeats -- like all truly great artists -- Levertov's poetry underwent a long process of show more transformation, helpfully if somewhat schematically characterized by editor Paul Lacey as having three essential phases: the celebratory, the political, and the religious. That the political poems can seem faintly dated, and that the religious ones are sometimes dull and obvious, seems hardly to matter in the face of the ferocity and streamlined power that her best poems summon. Some of them are such crystalline expressions of feminism, femininity, sex and longing, power and lust -- the "amnesia of the heart," the "silvery now of living alone" -- that I can hardly understand how they have eluded my attention all these long years. Ah well. show less

Complex and carefully progressive, this is a collection worth reading for anyone interested in groundbreaking poetry or in literature actively involved in resistance and sub-culture revolution or awareness. Levertov is as gracefully lyrical as ever, and the poems are engaged in an exploration of socio-political awareness and distrust, experimenting with dreams and ideas of self along the way. Images and metaphors related to nature hold the book together in a single movement voicing concern show more over world and self, and the book becomes something to experience and re-experience as a result. Well worth the time for dedicated readers who love language and/or poetry. show less