Denise Levertov in Company

Essays by Her Students, Colleagues, and Fellow Writers

Donna Krolik Hollenberg

• Publisher: University of South Carolina Press
• Year: 2018
• ISBN:
  9781611178739
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Literary Criticism for Women Authors
• Index: Literature

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

NOTES

Wordsmiths in the Idea Factory

1. Kropotkin, Mutual Aid, 20.

2. Levertov, “Untaught Teacher,” 157.

3. Reznikoff, “Talk,” 97.

4. Williams, “Sort of a Song,” 55.

5. Pasternak, I Remember, 62.

6. Levertov, preface to To Stay Alive, 105.

7. Levertov, “Untaught Teacher,” 164.

Working Poets

1. Thackeray, Pendennis, 152.

2. Nelson, Our Last First Poets, 159.

3. Ibid., 17.

4. Raab, Writers and Their Notebooks, 138–39.

5. Since the writing of this essay, Pawlak has published four poetry collections: Jefferson’s New Age Salon: Mashups and Matchups (Cervena Burva Press, 2010); Go to the Pine: Quoddy Journals 2005–2010 (Plein Air Editions/Bootstrap Press, 2012); Natural Histories (Cervena Press, 2015) and Renaissance: New and Selected Poems and Poetic Journals 2005–2015 (Hanging Loose Press, 2016).

6. Pawlak, Buffalo Sequence, 15.

7. Pawlak, Special Handling, 11–21.

8. Pawlak, Official Versions, 13–65

The Sudden Angel Affrighted Me

1. Waskow, Godwrestling, 15.

2. Levertov, Stream and Sapphire, viii.

3. Bertholf and Gelpi, Letters of Duncan and Levertov, xvi.

4. Levertov, “Poetry, Prophecy, Survival,” in New and Selected Essays, 146.

5. Levertov, Tesserae, 7, 11.

6. Levertov, Collected Poems, 112, 767, 825, 345, 177.

7. Levertov, Poet in the World, 124.

8. For a more detailed account of their conflict, see “Opening the Gates of the Imagination,” my review of the Duncan/Levertov letters in Poetry Flash, 296–97.

9. “Poetry, Prophecy, and Survival,” in Levertov, New and Selected Essays, 146.

10. Levertov, Collected Poems, 342, 678, 756.

11. Bertholf and Gelpi, Letters of Duncan and Levertov, 669.

12. Levertov, Collected Poems, 677, 678.

13. Levertov, New and Selected Essays, 148.

14. Levertov, Collected Poems, 967

15. Levertov, Stream and the Sapphire, viii.

16. Levertov, Collected Poems, 735.

17. Ibid., 967.

18. Frye, Words with Power, 70.

19. Levertov, Collected Poems, 295.

20. Rabbi Burt Jacobson, founder of Kehilla Community Synagogue in Berkeley, also taught and guided me toward this view of faith.

21. Levertov, Collected Poems, 778, 855, 976.

Engagement, Inquiry, Faith

1. “I remember discussing the problem—the problem of the lack of peace poems—with some poet friends, Robert Hass and David Shaddock.” Levertov, New and Selected Essays, 154.

2. Ibid., 15.

3. Levertov, Collected Poems, 363, 364.

4. Shaddock, “Denise Levertov,” 135–36.

5. Levertov, Collected Poems, 432, 966.

6. Hallisey, “Denise Levertov’s ‘Illustrious Ancestors,’” 5.

7. Brooker, Conversations, 60.

8. Smith, “Songs of Experience,” 181.

9. Levertov, preface to To Stay Alive, vii–ix.

10. Levertov, Poet in the World, 253.

11. Levertov, introduction to Shaddock, Dream...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• Wordsmiths in the Idea Factory: Denise Levertov’s MIT Poetry Workshop
• Working Poets: Denise Levertov and Mark Pawlak
• The Sudden Angel Affrighted Me: God Wrestling in Denise Levertov’s Life and Art
• Engagement, Inquiry, Faith: The Parallel Voyages of Denise Levertov and David Shaddock
• Denise and Me
• “Nothing / Like a Real Bridge”: Rae Armantrout and Denise Levertov
• Interview with Bruce Weigl
• Generations of Poets: Denise Levertov and Bruce Weigl
• Poet’s Ear, Poet’s Voice
• The Expansive View: The Poetry of Susan Eisenberg and Denise Levertov
• The Integrity of Words
• From Denise Levertov to Kathleen Norris
• Dear, Dear Denise: Fragments of a Mentor
• Dear Ben, Dear Denise: A Lament and a Praise
• Dear Denise
• P.S. Mind the Gap
• The Almost Wilderness
• Primary Wonders, Primary Joys: Emily Warn and Denise Levertov
• Denise Levertov: Craft and Conscience
• Ending in Abandon: Eavan Boland and Denise Levertov
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Contributors
• Index