Philip Levine (poet) | Criticism

This literature criticism consists of approximately 3 pages of analysis & critique of Philip Levine (poet).

Philip Levine (poet) | Criticism

This literature criticism consists of approximately 3 pages of analysis & critique of Philip Levine (poet).
This section contains 564 words
(approx. 2 pages at 300 words per page)
Buy the Critical Essay by Sydney Lea

Philip Levine's characters are specifically not the masters of their need. The opening passage of The Names of the Lost signals that it too will be filled with wakenings, but not into home:

      When the streetcar stalled on Joy Road,
      the conductor finished his coffee, puffed
      into his overcoat, and went to phone in.
      The Hungarian punch-press operator wakened
      alone, 7000 miles from home, pulled down
      his orange cap and set out. If he saw
      the winter birds scuffling in the cinders,
      if he felt it was the dawn of a new day,
      he didn't let on …

("On the Birth of Good and Evil During the Long Winter of '28")

The punch-press operator is literally—as so many of Levine's lost are metaphorically—a Displaced Person, his life and mind mysterious. Does he expect or even want the revelation, the dawn of a new day, the revolution which Pack...

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This section contains 564 words
(approx. 2 pages at 300 words per page)
Buy the Critical Essay by Sydney Lea
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Critical Essay by Sydney Lea from Gale. ©2005-2006 Thomson Gale, a part of the Thomson Corporation. All rights reserved.