Denise Levertov: Forest

Denise Levertov was Poet. Explore interesting quotes on forest.

Denise Levertov: 98 quotes 0 likes

“In the forest
they too had heard,
and were pulling their roots in pain
out of a thousand years' layers of dead leaves,
rolling the rocks away,
breaking themselves
out of
their depths.”

Denise Levertov

A Tree Telling of Orpheus (1968)
Context: And I
in terror
but not in doubt of
what I must do
in anguish, in haste,
wrenched from the earth root after root,
the soil heaving and cracking, the moss tearing asunder —
and behind me the others: my brothers
forgotten since dawn. In the forest
they too had heard,
and were pulling their roots in pain
out of a thousand years' layers of dead leaves,
rolling the rocks away,
breaking themselves
out of
their depths.

Pain , Dead

“I was the first to see him, for I grew
out on the pasture slope, beyond the forest.
He was a man, it seemed...”

Denise Levertov

A Tree Telling of Orpheus (1968)

“To leave the open fields
and enter the forest, that was the rite.
Knowing there was mystery, they could go.”

Denise Levertov

"The Novices" (1960)
Context: To leave the open fields
and enter the forest, that was the rite.
Knowing there was mystery, they could go.
Go back now! And he receded among the multitude of forms, the twists and shadows they saw now, listening to the hum of the world's wood.

“And I
in terror
but not in doubt of
what I must do
in anguish, in haste,
wrenched from the earth root after root,
the soil heaving and cracking, the moss tearing asunder —
and behind me the others: my brothers
forgotten since dawn. In the forest
they too had heard,
and were pulling their roots in pain
out of a thousand years' layers of dead leaves,
rolling the rocks away,
breaking themselves
out of
their depths.”

Denise Levertov

A Tree Telling of Orpheus (1968)

Pain , Tear , Dead