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Max Richards shares: 9, Denise Levertov


Cuttings, held together by a slightly rusted paper clip, fall from his copy of Penguin Modern Poets 9: Denise Levertov, Kenneth Rexroth, William Carlos Williams. (Penguin Books, 1967). They include a typed version of 'The Rainwalkers', and photocopies of 'February Evening in New York' and 'The Cold Spring', the second with a note in Max’s hand "comp[are] with Dickinson ‘The Bustle’." Was he taking a class or writing a review? Then this one page hand-written set of notes about poetic construction. Are they Max Richards’ own responses or his summary of things by Levertov collated from her writings for reference? Or a bit of both? Whatever the case, the page has the feel of a trouvée poem:


 


24-7-81


Denise Levertov

on non-traditional metrics


free verse: impulse to flow, avoidance of the


interruption of pattern


But ‘wellwrought’…? ‘organic form’ 19th c.


a term taken over by shampoo manufacturers!


‘exploratory form’ giving us process rather


than results


sonnets etc. have closure, may sound


anachronistic if not used ironically


the line break & the dynamics of


perception & word choice


nonsyntactic pauses


dance/song rather than walk/statement


see Valéry


indentation too        hesitations


many epiphanies


effect on ‘melody’


pitch patterns combined with rhythmic patterns


fidelity to experience


& experiencing the experience


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