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A Walk With Tom Jefferson
The inspiration for the title poem of Philip Levine’s A Walk with Tom Jefferson is not the founding father and third president of the United States that most readers would imagine upon hearing the name. Levine’s Tom Jefferson is quite different from his he is an African American living in a destitute area of industrial Detroit. But to Levine, he is “wise, compassionate, deliberate, honest…a great unknown American.” In A Walk with Tom Jefferson , Philip Levine reminds us why he is best known for his poems about working-class life in Detroit--and why so many people count a Levine poem among their favorites.
- GenresPoetry
64 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1988
2 people are currently reading
22 people want to read
About the author
Philip Levine
138 books154 followersPhilip 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.
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.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
July 28, 2009
A fine volume of poetry from Levine, one that includes some harrowing poems about working class life in industrial Detroit. I originally read the book about 20 years ago.
March 2, 2022
"'We need
this season,' Tom has said,
but Tom believes
the roots need cold,
the earth needs to turn
to ice and snow so a new fire
can start up in the heart
of all that grows.
He doesn't say that.
He doesn't say the heart
of ice is fire waiting,
he doesn't say the new seed
nestles in the old,
waiting, frozen, for the land
to thaw, and even these streets
of cracking blacktop long gone gray,
the seven junked cars
the eye can note collapsed
on slashed tires, their insides
drawn out for anything, he doesn't
say all this is a lost land,
it's Biblical. He parks his chromed
shopping cart under the porch,
brushes the dirt and leaves
from his worn corduroy -
six feet of man, unbowed -
and locks the knee-high gate
of his fence that could
hold back no one,
smiles and says the one word,
'Tomorrow,' and goes in."
this season,' Tom has said,
but Tom believes
the roots need cold,
the earth needs to turn
to ice and snow so a new fire
can start up in the heart
of all that grows.
He doesn't say that.
He doesn't say the heart
of ice is fire waiting,
he doesn't say the new seed
nestles in the old,
waiting, frozen, for the land
to thaw, and even these streets
of cracking blacktop long gone gray,
the seven junked cars
the eye can note collapsed
on slashed tires, their insides
drawn out for anything, he doesn't
say all this is a lost land,
it's Biblical. He parks his chromed
shopping cart under the porch,
brushes the dirt and leaves
from his worn corduroy -
six feet of man, unbowed -
and locks the knee-high gate
of his fence that could
hold back no one,
smiles and says the one word,
'Tomorrow,' and goes in."
November 10, 2023
So many five-star reviews, as with every book by any known poet. I did not find it that amazing, however. It's good but mostly these poems are quite well written description. Rare is the mind offered grander meaning, multiple meanings, beyond those descriptions, though the descriptions themselves are keen.
Poetry is personal. Other readers may indeed be mesmerized by Levine's work. And I certainly recommend that he be read. I expect to read more of him myself. Expose yourself to a wide variety of poets and styles. You gain something from everyone.
Poetry is personal. Other readers may indeed be mesmerized by Levine's work. And I certainly recommend that he be read. I expect to read more of him myself. Expose yourself to a wide variety of poets and styles. You gain something from everyone.
August 3, 2007
Levine is not my favorite poet, but he's worth reading. He tends to write what I'd call snapshot poems, little scenes in a life.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews