Wednesday, May 8, 2019

Denise Levertov's Stream and Sapphire

In her career, Denise Levertov has written many poems with extraordinary themes. For example, respect for nature and life, nothingness and absence, and despair for the world. There are also positive thoughts and images about death, peace, search, gratefulness, amazement and joyful dance.

As people become more aware of the tensions in the world and their relationship with them, it is as if they are being driven to ask spiritual questions.

Dennis Lovetov

1997 - The year she died was 74 years old - she brought together 38 poems published in the "Streams and Sapphire" published by New York New Directions Publishing Company.

Dennis Lovetov's life

Denise Levertov was born in 1923 and grew up in Ilford, Ilford. Her mother is from a small mining village in North Wales. Her father was a Hasidic Jew of Russia. After moving to England, he became a pastor of the Anglican Church after converting to Christianity. During the Second World War, she became a civilian nurse who served in London during the entire bombing. In 1947, she married American writer Mitchell Goodman, and a year later they moved to the United States.

The inner development of Denise Levertov

It seems that she values ​​her spiritual and religious suspicion and uncertainty as a way to find a way in the maze of life. However, for example, in St. Thomas Didymus, according to her inner development, her writing began to show that nothingness and darkness are no longer doubts and pains. What annoying concerns have solved positive things.

Dennis Lovetov's religious consciousness

In her life, her poetry tends to shift from a constantly questioning religion to simply accepting it. Therefore, as her own beliefs grew from agnosticism, through constant questioning of religion to accepting Christian faith, the content became more open to religion. She wrote that this is a movement that contains many doubts, doubts and affirmations.

As a growing religious consciousness begins to be reflected in Dennis Lovetov's poetry, I am reminded of what the philosopher James Pratt wrote. He wrote an article about the life of intuition that is greater than one's life. It is said that this existence is like a happy feeling with another person, although it is actually not seen, heard or felt that person.

She wrote this mysterious existence in the absence of her:

Theme from Thomas Merton

"The spinning ride was dazzling, the lights dazzled him. Fragmentation, he was not there. God suffered the emptiness of his absence."

Don't we be troubled by the world filled by fast-moving stimuli, which requires our attention so that we don't notice the lack of God's spirit in our souls? No wonder we are desperate for people who have nothing to do with it.

She said that when she started writing clear Christian poetry, she thought she would lose some readers. But she didn't actually have it. Her mental hunger is a reaction or unconscious reaction to technical euphoria.

Denise Levertov's Christian faith

She also said that when you are really caught in writing poetry, it may be a form of prayer. She is not very good at praying, but she said that what she experienced when she wrote poetry was close to prayer. She feels it to varying degrees, not every poem.

She compared religious beliefs with the decline and flow of trends.

From the tide

"It seems that faith is a trend that reacts to actions and inactions."

Although reflection requires effort to focus on God and what she calls God's embrace, she seems to be able to tolerate the paradox of not knowing all the answers and accepting the faith.

In her writing, in my mind, Denise Levertov illustrates the spiritual religious philosopher Emanuel Swedenborg's insistence on true religious enlightenment. This is the gift of God's inner perception accepted by the following people:

- Humblely looking for spiritual meaning
- Love the truth for the truth
- I hope to be really useful in life.
- Turning to spiritual values ​​takes precedence over the natural desires of life

Copyright 2014 Stephen Russell-Lacy




Orignal From: Denise Levertov's Stream and Sapphire

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