Philip Levine

By: Monica Down, Chelsea Liu, Zach Peters

Books by Philip Levine• Poetry:

– News of the World (2009)– Breath (2004)– The Mercy (1999)– Unselected Poems (1997)– The Simple Truth (1994)– What Works Is (1991)– A Walk With Tom Jefferson (1988) – Sweet Will (1985) – One for the Rose (1981)– 7 Years From Somewhere (1979)– Ashes: Poems New and Old (1979)– 1933 (1974)– They Feed They Lion (1972)– Red Dust (1971)– Pili’s Wall (1971)– Not This Pig (1968)– On The Edge (1963)

• Essays– The Bread of Time (1994)

• Translations– Off the Map: Selected Poems of

Gloria Fuertes. Edited and Translated with Ada Long

– Tarumba: The Selected Poems of Jaime Sabines. Edited and Translated with Ernesto Trejo.

Biography

• Great Depression• Son of Russian/Jewish

Immigrants • Wayne State University• Experiences and

Observations

Biography

• Detroit (Childhood, young-man hood)– Industrial life – “Voiceless”

• Spain (periodic)• Spanish Civil War • Northern California

(most adult life)

“The real challenge is when language, instincts, technique and practice come together. Then you have to follow where the poem leads. And it will surprise you. It will say things you didn’t expect to say. And you look at the poem and you realize, ‘That is truly what I felt. That is truly what I saw.’”

Recurring Subjects:-- Spain, especially the anarchists who fought the

fascists in the Spanish Civil and his own time living in Barcelona.

-- Detroit and Industrialism-- World War II (Hiroshima)-- Rain, especially in dreams. He says, “it is a

blessing and a curse.” -- Factory workers and the lower class

Recurring Themes: “That is what I am trying to capture, the

absolute truth, not the accidental truth.”

-- Invention, intensifying truth by disguising it or adding distance.

-- Absolute rejoice, even when the poems are dark. -- Voice of the “Others”-- Balance of life, as seen through blessings and curses.

The Simple Truth Subjects:-- Relationships and Family -- The “Others”-- Absolute Truth-- Places (Travel, mostly Spain)-- Color-- Nature (Trees, Birds)

“These new poems have a certain wackiness to them and an unusual degree of inventiveness. I began finding myself bored by books I had liked when I was younger, bored because each had a single nerve tone”

Correlating Themes: “Personal perspective, emotion – is a key to absolute truth”

-- Mystery of the future (aging) In the Dark pg. 19

-- Holiness of everyday life (role of religion) The Simple Truth pg. 44

-- Absolute Truth imbedded in past (relation between prayer and memory) Soul pg. 14Photography pg. 54

-- Complexity and ambiguity of relationships (invention)My Mother with the Purse the Summer they Murdered the Spanish Poet pg. 63

Form and Diction

• Studied traditional forms as youth/young adult

• RARELY free verse – patterns exist with beats and closed forms

• Not prose but loose narrative verse• Uses overarching metaphor• One line is always varied in each poem –

“to be ornery”• Plain Spoken lyricism• 33 poems broken into 3 sections of 11 • Polar critical response

Poetic Characteristics

• Begins poems by laying down the circumstances: “The Simple Truth,” “Ask For Nothing,” “The Poem of Chalk”– Then expands the scene

• Creates Absolute personas: “My Sister’s Voice”• Misuses or changes words: “In the Dark,”

“Magpiety” • Draws on well-known figures, historical events,

and Spanish words.

“I asked Gunn, "How do you feel about being labeled as a Movement poet?," and he said, "Well, it got me in the anthology."

I see that labeling schools and movements is a convenience for critics and readers, but when I look at, say, Ginsberg and Snyder -- two poets I really love -- I don't see that they have a hell of a lot in common”

Schools of Poetry-- Uneasy and tired with confessional and new

formalist poetry-- Early: Beat -- Later: Language Poet-- Often referenced with Walt Whitman