Somebody Trying

By Denise Levertov 1923–1997 Denise Levertov

‘That creep Tolstoy,’ she sobbed.

‘He. . . He. . . couldn’t even. . .’

Something about his brother dying.

The serfs’ punishments

have not ceased to suppurate on their backs.

Woodlots. People. Someone crying

under the yellow

autumn birchgrove drove him

wild: A new set of resolves:

When gambling, that almost obsolete fever,

or three days with the gypsies

sparked him into pure ego, he could,

just the same, write home, ‘Sell them.’

It’s true. ‘Still,’ (someone who loved her said,

cold and firm while she dissolved,

hypocrite, in self disgust, lectrice)

‘Still, he kept on. He wrote

all that he wrote; and seems to have understood

better than most of us:

to be human isn’t easy. It’s not

easy to be a serf or a master and learn

that art. It takes nerve. Bastard. Fink.

Yet the grief

trudging behind his funeral, he earned.’

Source: Poems 1968-1972 (New Directions Publishing Corporation, 2002)

Biography

During the course of a prolific career, Denise Levertov created a highly regarded body of poetry that reflects her beliefs as an artist and a humanist. Her work embraces a wide variety of genres and themes, including nature lyrics, love poems, protest poetry, and poetry inspired by her faith in God. "Dignity, reverence, and strength are words that come to mind as one gropes to characterize . . . one of America's most respected . . .

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