Denise Levertov (1923–1997) was born in Ilford, on the edge of London, just nine miles northeast of Charing Cross. Her mother was Welsh, but her father was a Russian Hassidic Jew who had converted to Christianity. He emigrated to the United Kingdom, where he became an Anglican pastor, but he was also a scholar and prolific writer in Hebrew, Russian, German, and English.
"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." Her parents home-schooled her. She showed an enthusiasm for writing from an early age.
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This poem is from her first book of poetry, The Double Image, published when she was 23 years old.
Ballad
by Denise Levertov
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Bravely in a land of dust
we set out, as pilgrims must,
you, who fear the dark, and I
fearing winter in the sky.
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Dark and cold the winter cloud
hung above the hill of lies
and my phoenix cried aloud,
took flight toward the eastern skies.
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Do you think I shall forget
the tried intent, the diamond set
solitary and forlorn
in a coronet of thorn?
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Beyond the high and frozen hill
beyond the forest black and still
I shall find you, where the fire
burns the wings of my desire.
.
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When The Double Image appeared in 1946, Denise Levertov was hailed by Kenneth Rexroth as “the baby of the new Romanticism ... Her poetry ... could be compared to the earliest poems of Rilke or some of the more melancholy songs of Brahms."
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Only three years later, she had met and married an American, moved to New York, and given birth to a son. In 1955, she became a naturalized American citizen.
Levertov was passionately involved in the turbulent anti-war and civil rights protests of the 1960s and 70s, and much of her work concerned injustice, suffering and war. But the words “O taste and see that the Lord is good” from Psalms 34:8 on a subway poster in 1964 caught her eye:
O Taste and See
by Denise Levertov
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The world is
not with us enough
O taste and see
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the subway Bible poster said,
meaning The Lord, meaning
if anything all that lives
to the imagination's tongue,
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grief, mercy, language,
tangerine, weather, to
breathe them, bite,
savor, chew, swallow, transform
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into our flesh our
deaths, crossing the steet, plum, quince,
living in the orchard and being
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hungry, and plucking
the fruit.
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Levertov had always written some poems like “O Taste and See” which expressed her deep spiritual feeling and yet also her doubts about religion and her relationship with God. But in the 1980s, her exploration of the mystical and the religious intensified, which was also reflected in her work, especially her poetry. The culmination of this spiritual discovery was her conversion to Catholicism in 1990.
Denise Levertov, ©1983 by David Geier, The National Portrait Gallery (Smithsonian Institution)
This poem is from her 1984 book Oblique Prayers:
The Avowal
by Denise Levertov
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As swimmers dare
to lie face to the sky
and water bears them,
as hawks rest upon air
and air sustains them,
so would I learn to attain
freefall, and float
into Creator Spirit’s deep embrace,
knowing no effort earns
that all-surrounding grace.
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In 1994, Denise Levertov was diagnosed with lymphoma, and suffered pneumonia and acute laryngitis. Despite this she continued to lecture and participate at national conferences, many on spirituality and poetry.
To Live in the Mercy of God
by Denise Levertov
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To lie back under the tallest
oldest trees. How far the stems
rise, rise
before ribs of shelter
open!
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To live in the mercy of God. The complete
sentence too adequate, has no give.
Awe, not comfort. Stone, elbows of
stony wood beneath lenient
moss bed.
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And awe suddenly
passing beyond itself. Becomes
a form of comfort.
Becomes the steady
air you glide on, arms
stretched like the wings of flying foxes.
To hear the multiple silence
of trees, the rainy
forest depths of their listening.
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To float, upheld,
as salt water
would hold you,
once you dared.
–.–
To live in the mercy of God.
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To feel vibrate the enraptured
waterfall flinging itself
unabating down and down
to clenched fists of rock.
Swiftness of plunge,
hour after year after century,
O or Ah
uninterrupted, voice
many-stranded.
To breathe
spray. The smoke of it.
Arcs
of steelwhite foam, glissades
of fugitive jade barely perceptible. Such passion —
rage or joy?
Thus, not mild, not temperate,
God’s love for the world. Vast
flood of mercy
flung on resistance.
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In December 1997, Denise Levertov died at age 74. She left behind a looseleaf notebook with 40 poems. This is the last page:
Aware
by Denise Levertov
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When I found the door
I found the vine leaves
speaking among themselves in abundant
whispers.
My presence made them
hush their green breath,
embarrassed, the way
humans stand up, buttoning their jackets,
acting as if they were leaving anyway, as if
the conversation had ended
just before you arrived.
I liked
the glimpse I had, though,
of their obscure
gestures. I liked the sound
of such private voices. Next time
I'll move like cautious sunlight, open
the door by fractions, eavesdrop
peacefully.
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Sources
POEMS:
- “O Taste and See” from O Taste and See © 1964 by Denise Levertov (New Directions)
- “To Live in the Mercy of God” from Sands from the Well. © 1996 by Denise Levertov (New Directions Publishing) www.poetryfoundation.org/…
- “The Avowal” from Oblique Prayers © 1984 by Denise Levertov (New Directions Publishing) — www.poemhunter.com/…
- “Aware” from The Great Unknowing: Last Poems ©1999 by the Denise Levertov Property Trust (New Directions Publishing) — www.poemhunter.com/...
BIOGRAPHY:
