Zur Inhalt-Form-Problematik in Denise Levertovs engagierten Gedichten

Abstract

This article investigates the relation between form and content in Denise Levertov’s politically committed poems, which have hitherto been neglected or largely misinterpreted. With regard to the content of these poems one can distinguish three spheres: (I) expressions of the speaker’s state of mind, (II) descriptions of social and political reality, (III) appeals for moral and/or political change. Attention is also drawn to Levertov’s frequent confessions of her poetic plight.

These confessions, however, do not always prove to be true. Levertov succeeds in expressing her “numb” feelings and the “cataract filming” over her imagination, both caused by the war in Vietnam, by means of concrete, often psychosomatic imagery and structural condensation. The war itself is impressively described in grotesque imagery. Form largely disappears, however, in the poems dealing with conditions in the US; the content, often merely a series of superficial appearances, finds expression in heterogeneous and amorphous forms. Levertov’s repeated attempts to ‘define’ revolution also fail poetically, because the images she uses are inadequate and her political insights sometimes blurred. Finally, the conclusions reached here are compared with those of some important critics who have dealt with politically committed literature.