Levertov, Denise (Vol. 2) - Levertov, Denise 1923–
Levertov, Denise 1923–
English-born American poet in the tradition of William Carlos Williams and Kenneth Rexroth. (See also Contemporary Authors, Vols. 1-4, rev. ed.)
[Denise Levertov's] energies go into the making of poems, into the forming of intense yet modulated presentations of life. She spends no time whatsoever in flattering, cajoling, or winking at the reader; nor does she carry on a self-regarding dialogue with us the better to coax us into assent. Furthermore, and perhaps most riskily, she is not inclined toward jokes, ironies—harsh or suave—directed at the self. I don't think the absence of such wit makes for solemn poems, mainly because she gets so much on-going suppleness into the lines; in Williams' terms, she has Invention, and the things of her poetry are well-spaced and well-timed. In most of these poems [in The Sorrow Dance] a voice is overhead, serious—often to the point of grimness—(the poems on Vietnam...
[The entire page is 1586 words long]
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