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Denise Levertov: The American Poet from Britain By John Nelson |
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With over twenty
published books of poetry, Denise Levertov is one of the most influential
poets of the 20th century. “Her own distinctive voice to poems
concerned with multiple aspects of the human experience: love, motherhood,
nature, war, the nuclear arms race, the environment, mysticism, poetry,
and the role of the poet.” (http://www.English.uiuc.edu/maps/poets/) Her
poetry speaks of the “vocation of a poet”
(http://www.English.uiuc.edu/maps/poets/). Rainer Maria Rilke inspired the
poet theme. After moving to America, Levertov was continued to be inspired
by William Carlos Williams, Robert Creeley, Emerson, Thorean, Ezra Pound,
Levertov
began her long climb to the top in Ilford Essex, England on October
twenty-fourth, 1923. She was educated at home by her mother. At age five,
Levertov declared that she would be a writer. When she was twelve,
Levertov sent off some of her poetry to T. S. Eliot. He sent her back some
wonderful advice and encouraged her to keep writing. At age seventeen,
Levertov published her first poem in Poetry Monthly. During WWII, Levertov
served as a civilian nurse in London. After the war, she married Mitchell
Goodman, an American writer. In two years, the happy couple would be
living in the New York City area and have a son, Nickolai. In 1956,
Levertov became a naturalized U.S. citizen. It was only with her book
With Eyes at the back of our heads (1959) that Levertov’s British
background was forgotten. Through out the sixties, Levertov was an
activist and a feminist, which she expressed through her poetry. She was
also the poetry editor of The Nation in 1961 as well as from
1963-65. Levertov was also poetry editor of Mother Jones from
1975-78. From 1982-93, Levertov taught creative writing at Stanford
Her next book, Here and Now (1956),
captures her new writing style as well as immediate praise and
recognition. This book also leads Levertov to become an “important voice
in the American Avant-Garde” (www.poets.org). It was in the book, Here
and Now (1959), that Levertov also began to be accredited by many well
known poets of that time, including: Robert Creeley, Kenneth Rexroth, and
William Carlos Williams. Rexroth and Williams were both Avant-Garde poets
of an earlier generation. Perhaps Levertov is best known for her poetry
during the Vietnam War in the book The Sorrow Dance. This book
encompassed her rage and sadness for this period. The topics this book
covers are the war and the death of her older sister, Olga. It was not
until 1975 that Levertov won an award for her poetry. She won the Lenore
Marshall Poetry Prize for her book Freezing the Dust (1975). Her
last book of poetry, This Great Unknowing: Last Poems, was
published in 1999. |
| List of Published Works:
Poetry-
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University. In 1989, Levertov moved to Seattle, WA. It was during her last
decade that Levertov continued to write poetry. She passed away on
December 20th, 1997 due to
complications of lymphoma. 