a few scattered words on Levertov's "Love Poem" from Here and Now
violence and love often are close partners in levertov's work—not violence in terms of rape, but the violence of the passions, like whitman's grappling eagles or ovid's cupid burned with wax. love clarifies by pushing the "mist aside," the "mist between us," but is it love itself which has caused the mist? is love the "sick thing" from the first line in which the love is a part? is this some blakean sick rose syndrome? since the entire poem is encircled by the period, perhaps levertov's vision of love is both a disease and the cure? or perhaps within the very act of loving is the thing which destroys love? the lines in "The Lovers" in the same volume might suggest the latter reading.
Since you have made me beautiful
I am afraid
not to be beautiful.
violence and love often are close partners in levertov's work—not violence in terms of rape, but the violence of the passions, like whitman's grappling eagles or ovid's cupid burned with wax. love clarifies by pushing the "mist aside," the "mist between us," but is it love itself which has caused the mist? is love the "sick thing" from the first line in which the love is a part? is this some blakean sick rose syndrome? since the entire poem is encircled by the period, perhaps levertov's vision of love is both a disease and the cure? or perhaps within the very act of loving is the thing which destroys love? the lines in "The Lovers" in the same volume might suggest the latter reading.
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