Beat generation: 67 poesie

by Denise Levertov, Massimo Bocchiola (Translator), Jack Kerouac

Quando, verso la metà degli anni quaranta, prese vita quel movimento (non solo letterario), definito beat, nessuno si sarebbe aspettato che avrebbe modificato così radicalmente la vita e il modo stesso di fare poesia. Perché beat era ribellione, beat era battito, beat era ritmo. Quello della musica jazz, che si ascoltava in quegli anni, quello del be-bop, quello della cadenza dei versi nelle poesie. Beat era la scoperta di se stessi, della vita sulla strada, del sesso liberato, dei valori umani e della coscienza collettiva.

Poesie di :
Jack Kerouac
Allen Ginsberg
Lawrence Ferlinghetti
Gregory Corso
Malcolm Lowry
Frank O'Hara
Diane di Prima
Peter Orlovsky
Kenneth Patchen
La Loca
Anne Waldman
Harold Norse
Robert Nichols
Bob Kaufman
Janine Pommy-Vega

Genres: Poetry, Americana

146 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1997

About the author

American poet Denise Levertov was born in Ilford, Essex, England. Her mother, Beatrice Spooner-Jones Levertoff, was Welsh. Her father, Paul Levertoff, from Germany migrated to England as a Russian Hassidic Jew, who, after converting to Christianity, became an Anglican parson. At the age of 12, she sent some of her poems to T. S. Eliot, who replied with a two-page letter of encouragement. In 1940, when she was 17, Levertov published her first poem.

During the Blitz, Levertov served in London as a civilian nurse. Her first book, The Double Image, was published six years later. In 1947 she married American writer Mitchell Goodman and moved with him to the United States in the following year. Although Levertov and Goodman would eventually divorce, they had a son, Nickolai, and lived mainly in New York City, summering in Maine. In 1955, she became a naturalized American citizen.

During the 1960s and 70s, Levertov became much more politically active in her life and work. As poetry editor for The Nation, she was able to support and publish the work of feminist and other leftist activist poets. The Vietnam War was an especially important focus of her poetry, which often tried to weave together the personal and political, as in her poem "The Sorrow Dance," which speaks of her sister's death. Also in response to the Vietnam War, Levertov joined the War Resister’s League.

Much of the latter part of Levertov’s life was spent in education. After moving to Massachusetts, Levertov taught at Brandeis University, MIT and Tufts University. On the West Coast, she had a part-time teaching stint at the University of Washington and for 11 years (1982-1993) held a full professorship at Stanford University. In 1984 she received a Litt. D. from Bates College. After retiring from teaching, she traveled for a year doing poetry readings in the U.S. and England.

In 1997, Denise Levertov died at the age of 74 from complications due to lymphoma. She was buried at Lake View Cemetery in Seattle, Washington.

Levertov wrote and published 20 books of poetry, criticism, translations. She also edited several anthologies. Among her many awards and honors, she received the Shelley Memorial Award, the Robert Frost Medal, the Lenore Marshall Prize, the Lannan Award, a grant from the National Institute of Arts and Letters, and a Guggenheim Fellowship.

Reviews

[Sara Comuzzo · Rating 2 out of 5]

sono amante della beat generation ma questa raccolta di poesie non è niente di che. i protagonisti scelti sono senz'altro poeti e senza ombra di dubbio esponenti della corrente letteraria on the road ma i pezzi scelti non sono quelli della loro poetica migliore.
temi comuni sono la vita, gli incontri, gli amici, qualche amore, la libertà, la ribellione.
un bella immagine del periodo ma non esaustiva.

gli autori che fanno parte della raccolta sono:
Jack Kerouac
Allen Ginsberg
Lawrence Ferlinghetti
Gregory Corso
Malcolm Lowry
Frank O'Hara
Diane di Prima
Peter Orlovsky
Kenneth Patchen
La Loca
Anne Waldman
Harold Norse
Robert Nichols
Bob Kaufman
Janine Pommy-Vega