Biography

= Denise Levertov =



 Ever since she was a little girl, Denise Levertov has written poetry. After she was born on October 24, 1923 in Ilford, Essex, England and, she started writing at five. She was a child that was born and raised during World War II. She was inspired by the war and her experiences. As she got older, her mother educated her at home. Then her beliefs and education inspired her. By the age of twelve she had sent her poetry to T.S. Eliot, he sent back giving her some tips on writing. By the age of seventeen her first poem was published. It was called //Poetry Quarterly// (Levertov 1)//.// She had started free style poetry. In the 60’s she was an activist and a feminist, she expressed it through her poetry. During World War II, she became a civilian nurse in London (Levertov 1).

 In 1946, her first book, //The Double Image,// was published. Her first two books were focused on the form of language she used. Levertov wrote and published twenty books of poetry. She received the Shelley Memorial Award, the Robert Frost Medal, the Lenore Marshall Prize, the Lannan Award, a Catherine Luck Memorial Grant, the National Institute of Arts and Letters, and a Guggenheim Fellowship (Levertov 1).

 One year later, in 1947, she married Mitchell Goodman. Then a year later they moved to New York City, but she didn’t become a naturalized citizen until 1955 (Levertov 1). After she was a nurse she became a part time teacher for eleven years of Stanford University. She taught creative writing.  Later on December 23, 1997 she died at the age of 74 (Levertov 1). Even after her death her poems kept getting published.