The Names of the Lost

by Philip Levine

The modern poet expresses his outrage at the sufferings of war, the sorrows of autumn, and the loneliness of survival

Genres: Poetry

69 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1976

About the author

Philip Levine (b. January 10, 1928, Detroit, Michigan. d. February 14, 2015, Fresno, California) was a Pulitzer Prize-winning American poet best known for his poems about working-class Detroit.

He taught for over thirty years at the English Department of California State University, Fresno and held teaching positions at other universities as well. He is appointed to serve as the Poet Laureate of the United States for 2011–2012.

Philip Levine grew up in industrial Detroit, the second of three sons and the first of identical twins of Jewish immigrant parents. His father, Harry Levine owned a used auto parts business, his mother Esther Priscol (Prisckulnick) Levine was a bookseller. When Levine was five years old, his father died. Growing up, he faced the anti-Semitism embodied by the pro-Hitler radio priest Father Coughlin.

Levine started to work in car manufacturing plants at the age of 14. He graduated from Detroit Central High School in 1946 and went to college at Wayne University (now Wayne State University) in Detroit, where he began to write poetry, encouraged by his mother, to whom he later dedicated the book of poems The Mercy. Levine got his A.B. in 1950 and went to work for Chevrolet and Cadillac in what he calls "stupid jobs". He married his first wife Patty Kanterman in 1951. The marriage lasted until 1953. In 1953 he went to the University of Iowa without registering, studying among others with poets Robert Lowell and John Berryman, the latter of which Levine called his "one great mentor". In 1954 he graduated with a mail-order masters degree with a thesis on John Keats' "Ode to Indolence", and married actress Frances J. Artley. He returned to the University of Iowa teaching technical writing, completing his Master of Fine Arts degree in 1957. The same year, he was awarded the Jones Fellowship in Poetry at Stanford University. In 1958 he joined the English Department at California State University in Fresno, where he taught until his retirement in 1992. He has also taught at many other universities, among them New York University as Distinguished Writer-in-Residence, at Columbia, Princeton, Brown, Tufts, and the University of California at Berkeley.

Reviews

[Ryan Williams · Rating 4 out of 5]

After reading The Names of The Lost by Philip Levine, my perspective on poetry has changed. I am not the biggest poetry fan in the world. I particularly like writing prose. However, after reading the poetry of Philip Levine, I have found a new understanding for the genre. I know that not all poetry or poets for that matter are the same, but there usually is a point where I see a common ground that all poets have. However, there was something different about the works of Philip Levine in The Names of The Lost. The way that Levine used his poetry to express what he was trying to convey really caught my interest and did not allow me to day dream and drift off to think of something else irrelevant like other poems might do. His style was much more captivating and made me not want to put the book down. After all, it was only 69 pages long. I was able to read the book in one day. However, not only did I finish the book in a limited amount of time, I was able to comprehend the messages portrayed in each poem, unlike I would if I read something by Walt Whitman. To be fair with the reader of this review, I would like to point out that even though I thought this book of poems by Philip Levine The Names of The Lost to be captivating, I still had some trouble getting in to it. Though I thoroughly enjoyed it when I did, it is poetry and because I am not used to it as much as others, it did not come as easy to me as a regular novel surely would have. With this said, I do not want to deter any one from picking this book up. It was simply by personal experience and I know that if I could have easily (after a bit of rough waters) gotten through it, ANY ONE could have. Trust me on that one. Reading The Names of The Lost after the bit of struggle that I had in the beginning, definitely changed my view of poetry for good. I have not taken the time to find other poets that perhaps write like Philip Levine, but I am sure they exist and I definitely will be searching for them in hopes to read new great poets that captivate me. Had it not been for reading The Names of The Lost, this new ambition for poetry would certainly not exist. I would highly recommend this book to any avid poetry reader, a new poet, an experienced poet or someone like me who is simply looking for new and exciting poetry. Philip Levine definitely allowed me to find something just like this and he did a great job at it as well. After all, he is going to be the next poet laureate in the United States. After reading this book, I can completely understand why and I hope you guys enjoy it as much as I did.

[Mia]

My favorite poems of this collection: "The Secret of their Voices," "Let It Begin," "Gift for a Believer,"
"To My God in His Sickness"

Then snow that buried your childhood / and all the promises, that rusted / out the old streetcars

[Joana · Rating 3 out of 5]

“Why // do I have to die? Why // do I have to sit before him // no longer his father, only // a man? Because the given // must be taken, because // we hunger before we eat, // because each small spark // must turn to darkness.”

[Kyle · Rating 5 out of 5]

In moments this books reminds me of John Berger’s letters in The Shape of a Pocket, exchanges with Subcomondante Marcos, in that they seem to explore what it means to cross a great distance, without conceit, made smaller by the spatial dimensions of global capital - and a study in the integrity of honest speech necessary to communicate experience across disparity and distance. It is beautiful, in that at times it feels the text is directed to others, at times to the reader - but always it feels like the art of walking alongside someone, who you do not always understand but share an honesty with.

[Bob · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed these lyric poems, mostly about work, a European rather than American sensibility, always with the shadow of catastrophic political failure all around it-- the Holocaust and Vietnam. The photo on the cover was one of the most affecting photos I've ever seen. Simpler poems in a similar vein:Honey and Salt.

[Mills College Library]

811 L665L 1976

[Miami University Libraries]

King Library (2nd floor) | PS3562.E9 N3