Denise Levertov

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Denise Levertov

Denise Levertov (born October 24, 1923 in Ilford , Essex , England , † December 20, 1997 in Seattle , USA ) was an American poet of Russian - Welsh descent.

Life

Denise Levertov was the daughter of a Welsh mother and the Russian priest of the Anglican Church Paul Philip Levertoff , who had converted from Judaism. She received her school education through private tuition.

After she had published her first volume of poetry , The Double Image, in 1946 , she emigrated to the United States in 1948 , where she regularly published other collections of poetry. Her attachment to the poets of the so-called Black Mountain Movement such as Charles Olson and William Carlos Williams was evident, although her own writing style was unmistakable.

After the publication of With Eyes at the Back of Our Heads (1959), she became the poetry editor of The Nation magazine in 1961 . In 1963 she took part in a poetry conference organized by Warren Tallman alongside Charles Olson, Allen Ginsberg , Robert Duncan , Margaret Avison and Philip Whalen . In the following period she commented on numerous topics such as the Vietnam War and feminism, and her poems also dealt with similar issues. So, together with the writer Muriel Rukeyser , she undertakes an unofficial peace mission to Hanoi to demonstrate against the Vietnam War.

Her better-known later collections of poetry included Relearning the Alphabet (1970), Footprints (1972) and Evening Train (1992). In addition, in 1992 she published New and Selected Essays, a collection of essays on various topics. She exchanged letters with the poet Robert Duncan for several years .

In 1980 she was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters . In 1990 she was honored with the Frost Medal of the Poetry Society of America .

Publications

1946 to 1969

  • The double image , 1946
  • Here and now , 1957
  • With eyes at the back of our heads , 1958
  • Overland to the Islands , 1958
  • 5 Poems , 1958
  • The Jacob's ladder , 1961
  • O taste and see , 1962
  • City psalm , 1964
  • The Sorrow Dance , 1966
  • Denise Levertov, Kenneth Rexroth, William Carlos Williams , 1967
  • Out of the war shadow , 1967
  • The Cold Spring & Other Poems , 1968
  • A Marigold from North Vietnam , 1968
  • A tree telling of Orpheus , 1968
  • Three poems , 1968
  • In the night , 1968
  • Embroideries , 1969

1970 to 1989

  • Summer poems, 1969 , 1970
  • To the reader , 1970
  • A new year's garland for my students , 1970
  • Relearning the Alphabet , 1970
  • To Stay Alive , 1971
  • Footprints , 1972
  • The poet in the world , 1973
  • Conversation in Moscow , 1973
  • The Poet in the World , 1973
  • April in Ohio , 1973
  • The Freeing of the Dust , 1975
  • Chekhov on the West Heath , 1977
  • Modulations for solo voice , 1977
  • Life in the forest , 1978
  • Denise Levertov: In Her Own Province , 1979
  • Collected Earlier Poems 1940-1960 , 1979
  • Living , 1980
  • Mass for the day of St. Thomas Didymus , 1981
  • Light Up the Cave , 1981
  • A Wanderer's Daysong , 1981
  • Candles in Babylon , 1982
  • Poems , 1983
  • Two poems , 1983
  • The Acolyte , 1984
  • Oblique Prayers , 1984
  • The Menaced World , 1985
  • Poems 1968-1972 , 1987
  • Breathing the water , 1987
  • A Door in the Hive , 1989

1990 to 1997 and posthumous publications

  • El paisaje interior , 1990
  • Evening train , 1992
  • New & Selected Essays , 1992
  • Tesserae , 1995
  • Sands of the well , 1996
  • Nine poems , 1996
  • Batterers , 1996
  • Feet , 1997
  • The Stream & the Sapphire , 1997
  • The Life Around Us , 1997
  • Conversations with Denise Levertov , 1998
  • The Letters of Denise Levertov and William Carlos Williams , 1998
  • This Great Unknowing , 1999
  • Poems 1972-1982 , 2001
  • Making Peace , 2002
in German language
  • With eyes on the back of our head , Tschudy-Verlag, St. Gallen 1961
  • From parallel worlds , AltaQuito-Verlag, Göttingen 1998
  • Beyond the field , AltaQuito-Verlag, Göttingen 2001
  • Mirage , AltaQuito-Verlag, Göttingen 2010
  • Modulations for solo voice , AltaQuito-Verlag, Göttingen 2010
  • The mourning dance , Stadtlichter Presse, Wenzendorf 2013

Background literature

  • L. Wagner: Denise Levertov , 1967
  • Robert Alfred Jump Wilson: A bibliography of Denise Levertov. Compiled by Robert A. Wilson , New York 1972
  • Peter Middleton: Revelation and revolution in the poetry of Denise Levertov , 1981
  • William Slaughter: The imagination's tongue. Denise Levertov's poetic , Portree 1981
  • Liana Sakelliou-Schultz: Denise Levertov , 1988
  • Gudrun M. Grabher: The lyrical you: you-oblivion and possibilities of the you-determination in American poetry , Habilitation University Innsbruck 1988, ISBN 3-533-04144-1
  • Ulfried Reichardt: Interior views of postmodernism: on the poetry of John Ashberys, AR Ammons', Denise Levertovs and Adrienne Richs , dissertation Freie Universität Berlin 1988, ISBN 3-88479-547-3
  • Hannelore Möckel-Rieke: Fictions of nature and femininity: on the justification of feminine and committed spellings by Adrienne Rich, Denise Levertov, Susan Griffin, Kathleen Fraser and Susan Howe , dissertation, Ruhr-Universität Bochum 1989, ISBN 3-922031-34-X
  • Donald Capps: The poet's gift: toward the renewal of pastoral care , Louisville 1993
  • Murray Bodo: Poetry as prayer , Boston 2001
  • Robert J. Bertholf, Albert Gelpi (Eds.): The letters of Robert Duncan and Denise Levertov , Stanford University Press, 2004, ISBN 0-8047-4568-4
  • Sue Yore: The mystic way in postmodernity: transcending theological boundaries in the writings of Iris Murdoch, Denise Levertov and Annie Dillard , 2009, ISBN 978-3-03911-536-5

Web links and sources

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Members: Denise Levertov. American Academy of Arts and Letters, accessed April 9, 2019 .
personal data
SURNAME Levertov, Denise
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American poet
DATE OF BIRTH October 24, 1923
PLACE OF BIRTH Ilford , Essex , England
DATE OF DEATH December 20, 1997
Place of death Seattle , USA