Status
Available
Genres
Publication
New Directions (1998), Edition: Reprint, 136 pages
Description
"Sands of the Well addresses the natural world, music, memory, aging, and belief. Her long study of the nature of spiritual insight here finds an ever more active professed engagement. In Sands of the Well Levertov allows the reader to sense the complexity under her perfect clarity of surface, and her music and precision bear us along to a new awareness of the "Primary Wonder"."--BOOK JACKET.
User reviews
LibraryThing member chellerystick
First of all, I like the longer pieces (>20 lines or so) better than the shorter ones in this book. The short ones tend to be lovely little postcard sketches, but I don't feel they really stick to the ribs. However, when read along with the other poems in that section, they do lend a richness to
I personally liked sections V and VI, Representations and Raga, best, but there is some excellent work in here. These two sections use imagery related to music, but Levertov also writes about age, time and memory. She also is quite capable of using sound to her advantage, although she doesn't often foreground it. "Hymns to Darkness" (pp. 102-103) is an example worth examining wrt sound. She also writes some about writing; "For Those Whom the Gods Love Less" (p. 96) is relevant as well as "Writer and Reader" (p. 99).
Highly recommended.
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the topics she is discussing; therefore, I strongly recommend reading this book by sections (instead of by hopping around, or doing one poem a day, or anything like that). Levertov writes a lot about nature, and she is sensitive to the nuances of things, so she has really precise imagery.I personally liked sections V and VI, Representations and Raga, best, but there is some excellent work in here. These two sections use imagery related to music, but Levertov also writes about age, time and memory. She also is quite capable of using sound to her advantage, although she doesn't often foreground it. "Hymns to Darkness" (pp. 102-103) is an example worth examining wrt sound. She also writes some about writing; "For Those Whom the Gods Love Less" (p. 96) is relevant as well as "Writer and Reader" (p. 99).
Highly recommended.
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Language
Original language
English
Physical description
136 p.; 5.2 inches
ISBN
0811213617 / 9780811213615
Local notes
poetry