Denise Levertov in Company

Denise Levertov in Company PDF Author: Donna Krolik Hollenberg
Publisher: Univ of South Carolina Press
ISBN: 1611178738
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 266

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Book Description
A reflection on this poet's legacy through essays by contemporary poets and literary critics Denise Levertov (1923-1997) was an award-winning author of more than thirty books of poetry and prose featuring the subjects of politics and war and, in later years, religion. Born and raised in England amid political unrest and war, Levertov moved to the United States after World War II and settled in as a passionate poet/activist for peace and environmental conservation. She initially gained recognition as a member of the Black Mountain poets and later as a highly respected mentor and educator at esteemed universities including Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Brandeis, and Stanford, where she helped shape future generations of poets. In Denise Levertov in Company, Donna Krolik Hollenberg has assembled ten essays by contemporary poets who were influenced by Levertov as former students and/or colleagues and another ten by literary critics. Hollenberg selected contributors on the basis of their spiritual, intellectual, and political connections with Levertov at different stages of her life in the United States, and all are distinguished in their own right. The first five poets became acquainted with Levertov in the 1960s and 1970s, when she and they protested against the war in Vietnam. The next five poets, who were close to Levertov in the 1980s and 1990s while she was at Stanford, respond to aspects of Levertov's religious quest and her love and concern for the natural world. To assess Levertov's influence on contemporary poetry, Hollenberg has organized the essays into pairs. First a contributor offers a personal essay about his or her relationship with Levertov, which is followed by a companion essay about the contributor's poetry in relation to Levertov's. What emerges is a dialogue between autobiographical testimony and critical analysis. This combination of personal witness and objective evaluation contributes to a greater understanding of the contemporary poetry scene and the influence of Levertov's distinguished and affecting legacy. Contributors: Rae Armantrout Eavan Boland Martha Collins Alison Hawthorne Deming Susan Eisenberg Reginald Gibbons Donna Krolik Hollenberg Romana Huk Paul Lacey Aldon Lynn Nielsen Kathleen Norris Mark Pawlak Peggy Rosenthal Ben Sáenz Peter Dale Scott David Shaddock Michael Thurston Emily Warn Bruce Weigl Al Young

Denise Levertov in Company

Denise Levertov in Company PDF Author: Donna Krolik Hollenberg
Publisher: Univ of South Carolina Press
ISBN: 1611178738
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 266

Get Book Here

Book Description
A reflection on this poet's legacy through essays by contemporary poets and literary critics Denise Levertov (1923-1997) was an award-winning author of more than thirty books of poetry and prose featuring the subjects of politics and war and, in later years, religion. Born and raised in England amid political unrest and war, Levertov moved to the United States after World War II and settled in as a passionate poet/activist for peace and environmental conservation. She initially gained recognition as a member of the Black Mountain poets and later as a highly respected mentor and educator at esteemed universities including Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Brandeis, and Stanford, where she helped shape future generations of poets. In Denise Levertov in Company, Donna Krolik Hollenberg has assembled ten essays by contemporary poets who were influenced by Levertov as former students and/or colleagues and another ten by literary critics. Hollenberg selected contributors on the basis of their spiritual, intellectual, and political connections with Levertov at different stages of her life in the United States, and all are distinguished in their own right. The first five poets became acquainted with Levertov in the 1960s and 1970s, when she and they protested against the war in Vietnam. The next five poets, who were close to Levertov in the 1980s and 1990s while she was at Stanford, respond to aspects of Levertov's religious quest and her love and concern for the natural world. To assess Levertov's influence on contemporary poetry, Hollenberg has organized the essays into pairs. First a contributor offers a personal essay about his or her relationship with Levertov, which is followed by a companion essay about the contributor's poetry in relation to Levertov's. What emerges is a dialogue between autobiographical testimony and critical analysis. This combination of personal witness and objective evaluation contributes to a greater understanding of the contemporary poetry scene and the influence of Levertov's distinguished and affecting legacy. Contributors: Rae Armantrout Eavan Boland Martha Collins Alison Hawthorne Deming Susan Eisenberg Reginald Gibbons Donna Krolik Hollenberg Romana Huk Paul Lacey Aldon Lynn Nielsen Kathleen Norris Mark Pawlak Peggy Rosenthal Ben Sáenz Peter Dale Scott David Shaddock Michael Thurston Emily Warn Bruce Weigl Al Young

This Great Unknowing: Last Poems

This Great Unknowing: Last Poems PDF Author: Denise Levertov
Publisher: New Directions Publishing
ISBN: 0811223191
Category : Poetry
Languages : en
Pages : 82

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Book Description
When Denise Levertov died on December 20, 1997, she left behind forty finished poems, which now form her last collection, This Great Unknowing. Few poets have possessed so great a gift or so great a body of work—when she died at 74, she had been a published poet for more than half a century. The poems themselves shine with the artistry of a writer at the height of her powers.

Breathing the Water

Breathing the Water PDF Author: Denise Levertov
Publisher: New Directions Publishing
ISBN: 9780811210270
Category : Poetry
Languages : en
Pages : 100

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Book Description
"Levertov's master--more than mastery, because she is one of the originators--of contemporary poetic form, informed with a fierce, generous intelligence, can be frightening." --Ursula Le Guin, Washington Post

Making Peace

Making Peace PDF Author: Denise Levertov
Publisher: New Directions Publishing
ISBN: 9780811216401
Category : Poetry
Languages : en
Pages : 84

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Book Description
"The poems gathered here span the last three decades of Levertov's life, their subjects ranging from Vietnam to the death-squads of El Salvador to the first Gulf War." -- Back cover. -- Provided by publisher.

Denise Levertov

Denise Levertov PDF Author: Dana Greene
Publisher: University of Illinois Press
ISBN: 0252094212
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 329

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Book Description
Kenneth Rexroth called Denise Levertov (1923–1997) "the most subtly skillful poet of her generation, the most profound, . . . and the most moving." Author of twenty-four volumes of poetry, four books of essays, and several translations, Levertov became a lauded and honored poet. Born in England, she published her first book of poems at age twenty-three, but it was not until she married and came to the United States in 1948 that she found her poetic voice, helped by the likes of William Carlos Williams, Robert Duncan, and Robert Creeley. Shortly before her death in 1997, the woman who claimed no country as home was nominated to be America's poet laureate. Levertov was the quintessential romantic. She wanted to live vividly, intensely, passionately, and on a grand scale. She wanted the persistence of Cézanne and the depth and generosity of Rilke. Once she acclimated herself to America, the dreamy lyric poetry of her early years gave way to the joy and wonder of ordinary life. By the late 1960s and early 1970s, however, her poems began to engage the issues of her times. Vehement and strident, her poetry of protest was both acclaimed and criticized. The end of both the Vietnam War and her marriage left her mentally fatigued and emotionally fragile, but gradually, over the span of a decade, she emerged with new energy. The crystalline and luminous poetry of her last years stands as final witness to a lifetime of searching for the mystery embedded in life itself. Through all the vagaries of life and art, her response was that of a "primary wonder." In this illuminating biography, Dana Greene examines Levertov's interviews, essays, and self-revelatory poetry to discern the conflict and torment she both endured and created in her attempts to deal with her own psyche, her relationships with family, friends, lovers, colleagues, and the times in which she lived. Denise Levertov: A Poet's Life is the first complete biography of Levertov, a woman who claimed she did not want a biography, insisting that it was her work that she hoped would endure. And yet she confessed that her poetry in its various forms--lyric, political, natural, and religious--derived from her life experience. Although a substantial body of criticism has established Levertov as a major poet of the later twentieth century, this volume represents the first attempt to set her poetry within the framework of her often tumultuous life.

Denise Levertov

Denise Levertov PDF Author: Dana Greene
Publisher: University of Illinois Press
ISBN: 0252037103
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 331

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Book Description
Levertov was the quintessential romantic. She wanted to live vividly, intensely, passionately, and on a grand scale. Once she acclimated herself to America, the dreamy lyric poetry of her early years gave way to the joy and wonder of ordinary life. By the late 1960s and early 1970s, however, her poems began to engage the issues of her times. The crystalline and luminous poetry of her last years stands as final witness to a lifetime of searching for the mystery embedded in life itself. This volume represents the first attempt to set Levertov's poetry within the framework of her often tumultuous life.

The Collected Poems of Denise Levertov

The Collected Poems of Denise Levertov PDF Author: Denise Levertov
Publisher: New Directions Publishing Corporation
ISBN: 9780811237543
Category : Poetry
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
The landmark collected work of one of the greatest poets of the 20th century, now in paperback.

O Taste and See

O Taste and See PDF Author: Denise Levertov
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description


Sands of the Well

Sands of the Well PDF Author: Denise Levertov
Publisher: New Directions Publishing
ISBN: 9780811213615
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 148

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Book Description
Denise Levertov was born in England in 1923. She published her first book of poems in 1946 and moved to America in 1948. SANDS OF THE WELL, first published in hardcover in 1996, shows the poet at the height of her considerable powers, as she addresses the natural beauty of the Pacific Northwest coastal landscape in terms of music, memory, aging, doubt, and faith.

Robert Duncan and Denise Levertov

Robert Duncan and Denise Levertov PDF Author: Albert Gelpi
Publisher: Stanford University Press
ISBN: 9780804751315
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 232

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Book Description
A distinguished group of critics examine the close association between Robert Duncan and Denise Levertov, two poets central to the American postwar period, and the issues of form and meaning that drew them together and then split them apart, especially the question of the relation between poetry and politics, the private and public responsibilities of the poet.