Levertov, Denise

Levertov, Denise ( 1923 – 97 ),
British/American poet, born in Ilford, Essex; she published the neo-Romantic The Double Image in 1947 . In 1948 she moved to America where she held a variety of academic posts. She became a central figure in the Black Mountain group, and maintained their Modernist aims in an unceasing flow of volumes from 1958 to 1996 . Her search for the mystic and for ‘organic form’ led her to use free verse as she addressed family relationships, the natural world, and politics, notably the Vietnam War. The Sorrow Dance ( 1967 ) and Selected Poems (Bloodaxe, 1986 ) contain some of her best work.