Description
Book SynopsisPhilip Levine was the authentic voice of America's urban poor. Born in 1928, the son of Russian-Jewish immigrants, he spent his early years doing a succession of heavy labouring jobs. Trying to write poetry 'for people for whom there is no poetry', he chronicled the lives of the people he grew up with and worked with in Detroit: 'Their presence seemed utterly lacking in the poetry I inherited at age 20, so I've spent the last 40-some years trying to add to our poetry what wasn't there.' Much of his poetry addresses the joys and sufferings of industrial life, with radiant feeling, as well as painful irony: 'It took me a long time to be able to write about it without snarling or snapping. I had to temper the violence I felt toward those who maimed and cheated me with a tenderness toward those who had touched and blessed me.' Always a poet of memory and invention, Philip Levine has continually written poems which search for universal truths. His plain-speaking poetry is a testament to the durability of love, the strength of the human spirit and the persistence of life in the face of death. Poetry Book Society Special Commendation.
Trade ReviewLevine's poetic vision, nearly religious, transcends class, transcends natural boundaries, and transcends time... Masterly... -- Peter Davison * Atlantic Monthly *
The poet that continues to have the greatest impact for me is Philip Levine, and this book [Stranger to Nothing] serves as a great introduction. The subject matter he covers, the directness and generosity of his tone... all combine to astonishing worldly-wise poems that I couldn't imagine being without. -- David Tait * The North, Top 30 Outstanding Books from the Last 30 Years *
What I particularly admire about Mr Levine’s work is its great emotional riskiness, its large, deeply felt commitments… In a reactionary and forgetful time these radiantly human and memorialising poems can help us understand our lives -- Edward Hirsch * New York Times Book Review *
