Levertov, Denise (lĕv`ərtôf'), 1923–97, Anglo-American poet, b. Ilford, England. Educated in England, she came to the United States in 1948. Her spare, emotional poems hint at an intuitive order behind the apparent chaos in modern life. Her later work is marked by an awareness of issues concerning women. Collections of her poetry include The Double Image (1946), Here and Now (1957), The Sorrow Dance (1967), Relearning the Alphabet (1970), Footprints: Poems (1972), Oblique Players (1984), and A Door in the Hive (1989). An essayist and translator, she also was a political activist.

Bibliography

See studies by L. Wagner (1967) and H. Marten (1989).

Levertov, Denise

(born Oct. 24, 1923, Ilford, Essex, Eng.—died Dec. 20, 1997, Seattle, Wash., U.S.) English-born U.S. poet, essayist, and political activist. Levertov became a civilian nurse during World War II. She married an American writer after the war and moved to the U.S., where she was associated with the Black Mountain group, which included the poets Charles Olson and Robert Duncan. Influenced by the deliberate simplicity of William Carlos Williams's poetry, she wrote deceptively matter-of-fact verse on both personal and political themes. Among her poetry collections are Here and Now (1957), The Sorrow Dance (1967), and The Freeing of the Dust (1975).

Levertov, Denise (1923– ) poet; born in Ilford, Essex, England. Educated privately, she emigrated to America in 1948. She taught at many institutions, notably at Stanford (1982), and is known for her poetry of political and social activism, as in Candles in Babylon (1982).