In the title poem of this collection, Denise Levertov again demonstrates the arresting imagery that has characterized her poetic career. Our unchanging perception of self, she writes, is "the dimension / that moves with us but itself keeps still / like the bubble in a carpenter's level." The image does a lot of poetic work for her, suggesting the way the self is constructed, with hidden flaws, faintly remembered blueprints, and room for repairs and revisions. A number of these poems bring to mind Eliot's old term "objective correlative," and rewards the reader's attention with hypnotic language. Here is a longtime favorite at top form.
--This text refers to the
