Philip Levine (1928-2015) Tribute List
The poet Philip Levine died on Feb. 14, 2015 at the age of 87. A two-time National Book Award winner, Pulitzer Prize recipient, and former U.S. Poet Laureate, Levine cast a wide net when looking for subject matter, and wrote poems about things that aren't usually commemorated in poetry form anymore, like assembly lines and abandoned factories. Levine's use of memory and his command of language to convey both strength and weakness in moments of realization and revelation is unparalleled in modern poetry. Here are ten vocabulary words from Levine's poems.
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Full list of words from this list:
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austerity
excessive sternnessYears ago I lived
not far from here, grown to fat
and austerity, a man who came
closely shaven to breakfast and ate
in silence and left punctually, alone,
for work. So it was I saw it all
and turned away to where snow
fell into snow and the wind spoke
in the incomprehensible syllable
of wind, and I could be anyone
– Another Song -
inertia
a disposition to remain inactiveThe cast-iron wheels have stopped; one counts the spokes
Which movement blurred, the struts inertia fought,
– An Abandoned Factory, Detroit -
eulogy
a formal expression of praise for someone who has diedMen lived within these foundries, hour by hour;
Nothing they forged outlived the rusted gears
Which might have served to grind their eulogy.
– An Abandoned Factory, Detroit -
dominion
control or power through legal authority. I will have to forget
my name, my childhood, the years
under the cold dominion of the clock
so that this voice, torn and cracked,
can reach the low hills that shielded
the orange trees once.
– Any Night -
penitent
a person who repents for wrongdoingI bend forward
and place my palms on something rough,
the black asphalt or a field of stubble,
and the movement is that of the penitent
just before he stands to his full height
with the knowledge of his enormity.
– Last Words -
quaint
attractively old-fashionedNo less ignorant than they
of what grips and why, I am
moved to prayer, the quaint gestures
which ennoble beyond shame
only the mute listener.
– Night Thoughts Over A Sick Child -
gingerly
in a manner marked by extreme care or delicacyThe doctor fingers my bruise.
"Magnificent," he says, "black
at the edges and purple
cored." Seated, he spies for clues,
gingerly probing the slack
flesh, while I, standing, fazed, pull
for air, losing the battle.
– Passing Out -
palatable
acceptable to the taste or mindOne quiet morning
at the end of my thirteenth year a little bird
with a dark head and tattered tail feathers
had come to the bedroom window and commanded
me to pass through the winding miles
of narrow dark corridors and passageways
of my growing body the filth and glory
of the palatable world
– Salts and Oils -
rebuke
an act or expression of criticism and censureIn the bedroom
she considers a hat, something dull and proper
as a rebuke, but shaking out her glowing hair
she decides against it.
– Then -
prostrate
stretched out and lying at full length along the ground.
I loved his tall, skinny daughter,
or so I thought, and I would wait
beside the back door, prostrate,
begging to be taken in.
– Wisteria
Created on Sun Feb 15 17:58:33 EST 2015
(updated Mon Feb 16 14:18:12 EST 2015)
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