Denise Levertov

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Denise Levertov (24 October 1923 - 20 December 1997) was a British-born American poet. Born in Ilford, Essex, England, her mother was Welsh, and her father was an Anglican parson who had immigrated from Germany, and had been raised a Hasidic Jew before converting to Christianity.

She was educated at home, had an early childhood enthusiasm for writing, and at the age of 12 sent some of her poetry to T. S. Eliot who replied with a two page letter of encouragement.

She served as a civilian nurse in London during the bombings of World War II.

Her first book of poetry, The Double Image, was published in 1946.

She married an American writer, Mitchell Goodman, in 1947, and moved to the United States in 1948, living primarily in New York City, and in Maine during the summer. In 1955, she became a naturalized citizen of the United States.

She published her first American book Here and Now in 1956, and with the publication of With Eyes at the Back of our Heads in 1959 she began to gain wide acclaim. She went on to publish many prize-winning volumes of poetry, become involved in anti-war movements, and for eleven years, from 1982 to 1993 taught at Stanford University. In 1984 Levertov received a Litt.D. from Bates College.

She died at the age of 74, from complications of lymphoma.

Poetry

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)

Life At War (1968)

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)

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)

The Sands of the Well (1996)

The Life Around Us: Selected Poems on Nature (1997)

The Stream & the Sapphire: Selected Poems on Religious Themes (1997)

'' What Were They Like

Prose

The Poet in the World (1973)

Light Up the Cave (1981)

New & Selected Essays (1992)

Tesserae: Memories & Suppositions (1995)

The Letters of Denise Levertov and William Carlos Williams (1998) Edited by Christopher MacGowan.

External links

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