Evening Train: Poetry

by Denise Levertov

“ Evening Train , Denise Levertov's twenty-first collection, carries the extended pilgrimage of her poetry into stirring new territory... Luminous, epiphanic... Evening Train leaves us floating on the mysterious lightness...of Levertov's ecstatic faith...” ― Tom Clark, San Francisco Chronicle At her most moving and meditative, impressive and musical, Denise Levertov addresses in her poetry collection, Evening Train , the nature of faith and love, the imperiled beauty of the natural world, and the horrors of the Gulf War.

Genres: Poetry, American

132 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 1992

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

[Eliana · Rating 4 out of 5]

I feel as if someone had seized my insides and rearranged them. Also the last poem, after all the tension of the collection as a whole (which works really, really well), left me breathless in awe of the Lord.

[Molly · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’ll dig in, into my days, having come here to live not to visit

[Peter Spaulding · Rating 5 out of 5]

Aside from a few more awkward topical poems, these were all amazing. Every one was good in some way. The title poem makes every other one worth reading. There’s a real sense of despair that gets undercut by an abiding faith in the larger scope of things that makes for a really interesting and fun time. Highly recommend.

[Elizabeth Payne · Rating 5 out of 5]

exquisite, transcendent even at points

“My absent fruit / stood for their barren hearts. He cursed / not me, not them, but / (ears that hear not, eyes that see not) / their dullness, that withholds / gifts unimagined.”

“But at last / when a true lake shows itself / it is blue, blue, blue, / a cupful of sky.”

[James · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very strong collection of Levertov, pursuing many of her themes - nature, the stupidity and harm of war (the book was written at the height of the Gulf War), love, memory. Highly recommended.

[AJ Nolan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had forgotten how much I love her poetry.

[Abbi Dion · Rating 5 out of 5]

"It's against the rules to tell your own fortune,/and I, after all, am able only to descry/the images in the leaves, not to construe their meaning." from "Letter to a Friend"

"All my life hoping: having to hope/because decades brought no reassurances." from "Hoping"

"the heron, unseen for weeks, came flying/widewinged toward me, settled/just offshore on his post,/took up his vigil./ If you ask/why this cleared a fog from my spirit,/I have no answer."
from "A Reward"

"like any mortal hero out of his depth,/like anyone who has taken a step too far/and wants herself back." from "Salvator Mundi: Via Crucis"

"How confidently the desires/of God are spoken of!/Perhaps God wants/something quite different./Or nothing, nothing at all." from "The Tide"

[Larry Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

Larry Smith Well there is that quiet sharing here in this older modern poet. Levertov kept her spirit open and free and yet deeply reflective. She moves so smoothly along trails and streets and opens eye and heart. Title poem is so disarmingly charming. Here are a few lines: "Blue smoke from small/ peaceable hearths ascending/ without resistance in luminous/ evening air."

[Annemarie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love Levertov, and I absolutely love this collection of poetry. Some of it is written during her time in the NW . . . it is timeless, beautiful, and speaks to my soul.

[Chuck Von Nordheim · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a practitioner, Levertow is impeccable--superb acoustics and cadence, clever line break, all while maintaining the pulse of spoken language. Since she can do most of what occurs in contemporary poetry, I don't like all of her content. For example, most nature and eco poetry doesn't do much for me and that makes up about a third of the content of this collection. I am far more interested in poems that consider human existence and human relationships--so "In Love," "Letter to A Friend" or "Becca" are the sort of offerings that punch my wow button. But there is plenty here for anyone to like. And, overall, it stands as a good example of how a wise poet uses the relationships possible within a collection to make the individual pieces part of a greater whole.

[Marne Wilson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Levertov is one of those poets I used to hear a lot about, but I'd never actually read her work before. For me, this collection, one of her last, was just ok. Perhaps I'd do better with some of her earlier work. (I have to say, though, that I really loved the title poem and it was worth the price of admission.)

[Mark Valentine · Rating 5 out of 5]

So far, this collection is my favorite of her books. The best is the title poem; it's a beautiful set piece that evokes a mood of the elusiveness of time and motion. I love how she has the ability to write about complex themes, emotions, and experiences with language that is evocative. I will keep reading more....

[Caroliena Cabada · Rating 4 out of 5]

Precise images and an array of concerns, from war to environmental destruction, that all feel timely and timeless. Personal without feeling exclusive, universal without being too presumptuous. "Contraband" and "Salvator Mundi Via Crucis" near the end of the book were among my favorites.

[Christopher McCaffery · Rating 3 out of 5]

A little overwrought sometimes in this one.

[Brian · Rating 5 out of 5]

***** (For the last subset of poems, ‘VIII. The Tide’…astonishing.)

[Melampus · Rating 3 out of 5]

grande Denise!

[Jennifer · Rating 5 out of 5]

beautiful, transcendent