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Reading and analysis of two poems by Denise Levertov, "For the New Year, 1981" and "Making Peace." Recommended for high school.
Two free verse poems from a 20th c. English-American poet. Analysis focuses on theme, word choice, syntax and the use of paradox and contradiction.
Very positive tone and themes, to celebrate the new year and new beginnings and new hope. (Not Star Wars. Not that there's anything wrong with that.)
Sixth in the Feminist Justice series, focusing on female authors and feminist themes in honor of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
Text for first poem:
“For the New Year, 1981”
I have a small grain of hope—
one small crystal that gleams
clear colors out of transparency.
I need more.
I break off a fragment
to send you.
Please take
this grain of a grain of hope
so that mine won’t shrink.
Please share your fragment
so that yours will grow.
Only so, by division,
will hope increase,
like a clump of irises, which will cease to flower
unless you distribute
the clustered roots, unlikely source—
clumsy and earth-covered—
of grace.
Text for second poem:
Link: Making Peace by Denise Levertov | Poetry Foundation
BY DENISE LEVERTOV
A voice from the dark called out,
‘The poets must give us
imagination of peace, to oust the intense, familiar
imagination of disaster. Peace, not only
the absence of war.’
But peace, like a poem,
is not there ahead of itself,
can’t be imagined before it is made,
can’t be known except
in the words of its making,
grammar of justice,
syntax of mutual aid.
A feeling towards it,
dimly sensing a rhythm, is all we have
until we begin to utter its metaphors,
learning them as we speak.
A line of peace might appear
if we restructured the sentence our lives are making,
revoked its reaffirmation of profit and power,
questioned our needs, allowed
long pauses . . .
A cadence of peace might balance its weight
on that different fulcrum; peace, a presence,
an energy field more intense than war,
might pulse then,
stanza by stanza into the world,
each act of living
one of its words, each word
a vibration of light—facets
of the forming crystal.
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Reading and analysis of two poems by Denise Levertov, "For the New Year, 1981" and "Making Peace." Recommended for high school.
Two free verse poems from a 20th c. English-American poet. Analysis focuses on theme, word choice, syntax and the use of paradox and contradiction.
Very positive tone and themes, to celebrate the new year and new beginnings and new hope. (Not Star Wars. Not that there's anything wrong with that.)
Sixth in the Feminist Justice series, focusing on female authors and feminist themes in honor of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
Text for first poem:
“For the New Year, 1981”
I have a small grain of hope—
one small crystal that gleams
clear colors out of transparency.
I need more.
I break off a fragment
to send you.
Please take
this grain of a grain of hope
so that mine won’t shrink.
Please share your fragment
so that yours will grow.
Only so, by division,
will hope increase,
like a clump of irises, which will cease to flower
unless you distribute
the clustered roots, unlikely source—
clumsy and earth-covered—
of grace.
Text for second poem:
Link: Making Peace by Denise Levertov | Poetry Foundation
BY DENISE LEVERTOV
A voice from the dark called out,
‘The poets must give us
imagination of peace, to oust the intense, familiar
imagination of disaster. Peace, not only
the absence of war.’
But peace, like a poem,
is not there ahead of itself,
can’t be imagined before it is made,
can’t be known except
in the words of its making,
grammar of justice,
syntax of mutual aid.
A feeling towards it,
dimly sensing a rhythm, is all we have
until we begin to utter its metaphors,
learning them as we speak.
A line of peace might appear
if we restructured the sentence our lives are making,
revoked its reaffirmation of profit and power,
questioned our needs, allowed
long pauses . . .
A cadence of peace might balance its weight
on that different fulcrum; peace, a presence,
an energy field more intense than war,
might pulse then,
stanza by stanza into the world,
each act of living
one of its words, each word
a vibration of light—facets
of the forming crystal.