Denise Levertov

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Denise Levertov
BornPriscilla Denise Levertoff
24 October 1923
Ilford, Essex, England
Died20 December 1997(1997-12-20) (aged 74)
Seattle, Washington
OccupationPoet
Period1946 to 1997
GenrePoetry
Notable awardsShelley Memorial Award (1984), Robert Frost Medal (1990)
SpouseMitchell Goodman

Denise Levertov (24 October 1923 – 20 December 1997) was an American poet.

She was born in Ilford, Essex, England. Her father was born in Russia. He was Jewish, but he became Christian and was an Anglican priest when she was born. She had no formal education but was taught at home by her parents. When she was 12, she sent some of her poems to T. S. Eliot. He answered her with a long, hopeful letter.[1]

Levertov was a nurse during World War II. Her first book of poems came out in 1946.[2] She moved to the United States in 1948 with her husband Mitchell Goodman, an American writer.[3] In 1956 she became a U. S. citizen. Her husband introduced her to poet Robert Creeley. Through him she got to know poets Robert Duncan and Charles Olson.[2]

From the 1960s, Levertov was active as a pacifist against the Vietnam War and nuclear weapons. She also protested against American aid to El Salvador and the Persian Gulf War.[1]

Levertov died of lymphoma in 1997.[1]

Books[change | change source]

  • 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)
  • A Door in the Hive / Evening Train (1993)
  • Sands of the Well (1996)
  • This Great Unknowing: Last Poems (2000)
  • Poems 1972–1982 (2001)
  • The Collected Poems of Denise Levertov (2013)

Related pages[change | change source]

References[change | change source]

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 "Denise Levertov". Poetry Foundation. 2023-02-16. Retrieved 2023-02-16.
  2. 2.0 2.1 "About Denise Levertov | Academy of American Poets". poets.org. Retrieved 2023-02-16.
  3. Jr, Robert Mcg Thomas (1997-02-06). "Mitchell Goodman, Antiwar Protest Leader, Dies at 73". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2023-02-16.