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Denise Levertov

デニース・レヴァートフ

Denise Levertov

Profile

Gender
Female
Born
1923-10-24 （Ilford, Essex, England）
Died
1997-12-20 （Seattle, Washington, United States） age 74
Nationality
British, American (naturalized)
Languages
English
Religion
Catholicism Baptized in 1990
Residence History
Ilford (childhood) → New York City (primary residence) → Maine (summer) → Somerville, Massachusetts → Palo Alto, California → Seattle, Washington (final residence)

Career

Occupations
Poet, Translator, Teacher / Professor, Essayist, Editor
Active Years
1946-1997
Affiliations
Brandeis University (teaching), Massachusetts Institute of Technology (teaching), Tufts University (teaching), University of Massachusetts Boston (teaching), Stanford University (Professor, Professor Emeritus), University of Washington (visiting/part-time)
Memberships
War Resisters League (activist/member), RESIST (founding member)
Influenced By
Black Mountain poets, William Carlos Williams, Charles Olson, Ezra Pound, Henry David Thoreau (Transcendentalism), Ralph Waldo Emerson (Transcendentalism)

Education

Home education
Period: 幼少〜青年期
Country: United Kingdom
Educated at home in childhood; studied ballet, art, piano and French in addition to standard subjects.
Honorary degree (Bates College)
Degree: Litt. D. (名誉学位)
Period: 1984
Year of Graduation: 1984
Country: United States
Received an honorary Litt. D. from Bates College in 1984.

Awards

Shelley Memorial Award
1984
Organization: Awarding organization (varies)
Result: 受賞
Robert Frost Medal
1990
Organization: Poetry Society / awarding body
Result: 受賞
Lenore Marshall Prize
Organization: Publishing/award organization
Result: 受賞
Lannan Literary Award for Poetry
Organization: Lannan Foundation
Result: 受賞
Guggenheim Fellowship
Organization: John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation
Result: 受賞
Catherine Luck Memorial Grant
Result: 受賞
Grant from the National Institute of Arts and Letters
Organization: National Institute of Arts and Letters
Result: 受賞

Awards & Nominations

Works

Major Works

The Double Image

1946 Poetry collection

Debut collection containing early poems, many in traditional forms.

self-formationtraditional poetic forms

Here and Now

1956 Poetry collection

A collection reflecting her growing engagement with American idioms and poetics.

immigration and identitylinguistic experimentation

With Eyes at the Back of Our Heads

1959 Poetry collection

Collection that established her reputation; noted for introspective and visual poems.

observationmemory

The Freeing of the Dust

1975 Poetry collection (political)

Contains politically engaged poems addressing the Vietnam War and its human cost.

war and sufferingpolitical protest

The Stream & the Sapphire

1997 Poetry collection (selected religious poems)

A selection tracing her movement from agnosticism to Christian faith, gathering religious-themed poems.

faithspiritual questnature and God

Bibliography

  • The Double Image (1946)
  • Here and Now (1956)
  • Overland to the Islands (1958)
  • With Eyes at the Back of Our Heads (1959)
  • The Jacob's Ladder (1961)
  • O Taste and See: New Poems (1964)
  • The Sorrow Dance (1967)
  • Relearning the Alphabet (1970)
  • To Stay Alive (1971)
  • Footprints (1972)
  • The Freeing of the Dust (1975)
  • Life in the Forest (1978)
  • Collected Earlier Poems 1940–1960 (1979)
  • Pig Dreams: Scenes from the Life of Sylvia (1981)
  • Candles in Babylon (1982)
  • Poems 1960–1967 (1983)
  • Oblique Prayers: New Poems (1984)
  • Poems 1968–1972 (1987)
  • Breathing the Water (1987)
  • A Door in the Hive (1989)
  • Evening Train (1992)
  • Sands of the Well (1996)
  • This Great Unknowing: Last Poems (2000)

Translations by Author

  • Black Iris: Selected Poems by Jean Joubert (translation)
  • Selected Poems by Eugene Guillevic (translation)
  • White Owl and Blue Mouse by Jean Joubert (translation)

Style & Themes

Literary Style
fusion of free verse and lyricismvisual, image-driven dictioninterweaving of political and religious themes
Recurring Motifs
naturewar and sufferingfaith and doubtcommunity vs. individuallanguage and expression

Health

  • Lymphoma
    1994–1997
    Diagnosed with lymphoma in 1994; suffered pneumonia and acute laryngitis in subsequent years. Died in 1997 from complications of lymphoma.

Legacy

Denise Levertov is regarded as a major 20th-century English-language poet who, influenced by the Black Mountain poets and William Carlos Williams, developed a distinctive lyrical and politically engaged poetry. Her late religious turn shaped her later work; she is also respected as a teacher and translator.

Archives

  • Stanford University Libraries (holds her papers)
  • Lake View Cemetery (burial place, Seattle)

In Popular Culture

  • Included in UK GCSE English Literature poetry anthologies; her poem 'What Were They Like?' appears in curricula.

Quotes

  • “My father's Hasidic ancestry, his being steeped in Jewish and Christian scholarship and mysticism, his fervour and eloquence as a preacher, were factors built into my cells.”
    Source: Autobiographical remark / Wikipedia (referenced)

Trivia

  • Born in 1923; naturalized U.S. citizen in 1955.
  • At age 12 she sent poems to T. S. Eliot and reportedly received an encouraging two-page reply.
  • Served as a civilian nurse in London during the Blitz.
  • Converted to Catholicism on November 18, 1990 (St. Edward’s Parish, Seattle).
  • Her papers are held by Stanford University.