Denise Levertov: Quotes about trees

Denise Levertov was Poet. Explore interesting quotes on tree.
Denise Levertov: 98   quotes 0   likes

“Then as he sang
it was no longer sounds only that made the music:
he spoke, and as no tree listens I listened”

Denise Levertov

A Tree Telling of Orpheus (1968)
Context: Then as he sang
it was no longer sounds only that made the music:
he spoke, and as no tree listens I listened, and language
came into my roots
out of the earth,
into my bark
out of the air,
into the pores of my greenest shoots
gently as dew
and there was no word he sang but I knew its meaning.

Music , Tree

“Fire he sang,
that trees fear, and I, a tree, rejoiced in its flames.”

Denise Levertov

A Tree Telling of Orpheus (1968)
Context: Fire he sang,
that trees fear, and I, a tree, rejoiced in its flames.
New buds broke forth from me though it was full summer.
As though his lyre (now I knew its name)
were both frost and fire, its chords flamed
up to the crown of me.
I was seed again.
I was fern in the swamp.
I was coal.

Fear , Tree

“Rain-diamonds, this winter morning, embellish the tangle of unpruned pear-tree twigs; each solitaire, placed, it appearrs, with considered judgement, bears the light beneath the rifted clouds — the indivisible shared out in endless abundance.”

Denise Levertov

Bearing the Light
Sands of the Well (1994)

Tree , Light , Winter

“He told of journeys, of where sun and moon go while we stand in dark,
of an earth-journey he dreamed he would take some day
deeper than roots ...
He told of the dreams of man, wars, passions, griefs,
and I, a tree, understood words – ah, it seemed my thick bark would split like a sapling's that grew too fast in the spring when a late frost wounds it.”

Denise Levertov

A Tree Telling of Orpheus (1968)

Tree , Spring , War , Passion