Levertov's Themes In Her Poetry example essay topic

"I often feel as if part of me is an outsider", said Denise Levertov speaking to the public after reciting a few poems in 1967. For a women that always felt as if she was an outsider, her poetry did not give off that image. Levertov, a modern American poet, used her poetry to speak her mind and get her feelings out. She also wished that some people would feel the same way and act upon it. In poetry, a theme is a common subject or matter on which a poet tends to write about, this could be anything from The Great Depression to ice cream. The themes of Denise Levertov poetry change dramatically with what events or problems were going on in her life at the particular time of each poem, yet all of her work is based on a human experience (Themes).

Denise Levertov's passion for literature started early in life. She was born in Ilford, Essex, England on October 24, 1923. Levertov was educated entirely at home by her mother, Beatrice Spooner, and at age five, she announced she would become a writer. When Denise was just twelve years old, she sent some of her poetry to T.S. Elliot who responded with, "excellent advice", and two pages of encouragement to keep writing. In 1940, her first poem was published in Poetry Quarterly, at just seventeen years of age (Levertov). During World War II, Denise served as a civilian nurse in London throughout the England bombings.

During this time she met and married Mitchell Goodman, an American soldier fighting in London, and also published her first book, The Double Image. The two of them moved to America in 1948 and a year later had a son Nicolai. It was in 1956 that Levertov became a citizen of the United States, and in that same year her first "Americanized" book was published (Here and Now). Between 1975 and 1978 she was poetry editor for Mother Jones magazine. Denise Levertov won several awards throughout her life including the Shelley Memorial Award. the Robert Frost Medal, The Lenore Marshall Prize, the L annan Award, and a Guggenheim Fellowship and a National Institute of Arts and Letters grant. She died due to lymphoma complications at age 74, on December 20, 1997 (Denise).

The poetry of Levertov has changed throughout the years, and has varied from book to book. As she started out as a British author, she soon became known as an American poet with little ties to her British origins. Mainly, Denise Levertov's work is concerned with several dimensions of the human experience: love, motherhood, nature, war, the environment, mysticism, the nuclear arms race, poetry, the role of the poet, and the poets interest in humanitarian politics. Although she based the story, or theme, of all her poems on human experience, she also suggested that she was an outsider.

She felt as if no one was like her, and even though at times she was categorized with the Black Mountain Poets, she also always had a distinction, even from them (Denise 33-45). Paul Levertov, her father, was raised a Hasidic Jew. This may not seem as a big deal, but back then, and in England it was. He is what motivated her and got her into having poems with the theme of Hasidic mysticism. Although Paul converted to an Anglican priest by the time Denise was born, she felt that her inherited propensities and the cultural environment of her family had everything to do with who she became; and outsider in her eyes but a highly respected poet in the eyes of many Americans. (Themes) In a 1986 interview with Levertov she spoke out about why she felt that she was an outsider writing about human experiences in through her poetry: "Among Jews a Goy, among Gentiles (secu alr or Christian) a Jew or at least half Jew. (which was good or bad according to their degree of anti-Semitism), among Anglo-Saxons a Celt, in Wales a Londoner who not only did not speak Welsh, but was not imbued with Welsh attitudes; among school children a strange exception whom they did not know whether to envy or mistrust- all of these anomalies predicted my later experience: I so often feel English. perhaps European, in the United States, while in England I sometimes feel American...

But these feelings of not-belonging were positive for me, not negative... I was given such a sense of confidence by my family, in my family, that though I was often shy (and have remained so in certain aspects) I nevertheless experienced the durance as an honor, as part of knowing from an early age- perhaps by 7, certainly by 10- that I was an artist-person and had a destiny (76-77). This statement by Denise is basically explaining that she is different from other people because she is half Jewish, European, English, and American all at the same time but she only feels American where she is known for her European and English, and she only feels European and English where she is known for her American. No matter where she goes she has a reason to stand out and this is what makes her poetry so important, the theme of her poetry so important, no matter if you fit in or not, anyone can relate to what an "outsider" writes, and since she writes about human experiences that everyone has lived through, everyone can enjoy her poetry. She fulfills the role of the poet, in the fact that her "role" is to relate to people although she is different (Themes). The only other thing besides Denise Levertov's multi-cultural background that has influenced her writing and formed a common theme is history.

Levertov lived through the England war years, and the England bombing. During this time she was a nurse helping the wounded and on her free time writing live poetry of her surrounding, which makes it more meaningful than other poets who read about these times and then wrote about them. Hitler and refuge conditions were also a big theme of modern American poetry and again, Levertov, being half Jewish herself, and having refugees living in her house, had a hand in hand experience with these historical events, to for a common theme for her works (Levertov). In conlcusion, Denise Levertov's themes in her poetry changed throught the ups, downs and memorable events that took place in her life.

These events made her subject (theme) more real and more interesting to her readers due to the fact that she lived through them, and witnessed these events on a daily basis. She also based her theme on subjects that almost everyone else could relate too. Denise Levertov will always be remember as a very unique an moving poet.