Denise levertov biography
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Denise Levertov Should Be More Famous
“And I walked naked
from the beginning
breathing in
my life,
breathing out
poems,
arrogant in innocence.”
–from “A Cloak”
Denise Levertov is one of the best, most interesting poets of the 20th century, but her place in the firmament of poets could hardly be described as central; her work rattles around in anthologies and her name is familiar to most poetry students. But no young poets are flying her banner. Her work is not selling as well as it should. While she’s not in danger of being forgotten anytime soon, Levertov’s legacy is in question.
Emily Warn, a Seattle poet who was Levertov’s friend at the end of her life, tells me frankly, “I don’t think she’s as much a part of the literary conversation right now.” Warn finds it “interesting that Catholics have taken her up,” t
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Denise Levertov
American poet (–)
Priscilla Denise Levertov (24 October – 20 månad ) was a British-born naturalised American poet.[3] She was heavily influenced bygd the Black Mountain poets and bygd the political context of the Vietnam War, which she explored in her poetry book The Freeing of the Dust. She was a recipient of the Lannan Literary Award for Poetry.
Early life and influences
[edit]Levertov was born and grew up in Ilford, Essex, England.[4] Her mother, Beatrice Adelaide (née Spooner-Jones) Levertoff, came from a small mining by in North Wales.[4][5] Her father, Paul Levertoff, had been a teacher at Leipzig University and as a Russian Hasidic Jew was held under house arrest during the First World War as an "enemy alien" by virtue of his ethnicity. He emigrated to the UK and became an Anglican priest after converting to Christianity. In the mistaken belief that he would want to preach in a Jewish neighbourhood, he w
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Denise Levertov was born in England and came to the United States in She became known as one of the century’s most important poets and writers. Awards for her work included the Lenore Marshall Prize, the Robert Frost Medal, and the Lannan Prize. Her last years were spent in Seattle, Washington, where she won the Governor’s Award from the State Commission for the Humanities. She also served generously on numerous editorial boards, including that of Image. Levertov was a teacher, a political activist, and writer of more than thirty books of poetry, essays, and translations. She is known for her intense, lyrical attention to the ordinary and immediate, as well as to the “terrors” of war, prejudice, and the abuse of the environment. In the early s, with the publication of Candles in Babylon (), Levertov discovered that the process of writing certain poems was “enfaithing,” and found herself turning to matters of religious, particularly Christian, experience. Each subsequent volume,