Question

In at least one hundred words, identify the purpose of Levertov's poems "Overheard over S.E. Asia"and "Life at War" and determine whether she was successful in achieving that purpose. Use details from the poems to support your response.

Answer 1

Denise Levertov (1923-1997) was an American poet and anti-war activist. She felt it was part of her calling to point out the injustice of the Vietnam War, and she read some of her poems at the protest rallies in which she took part. The two poems mentioned here touch on the circumstances of the war in South East Asia that the USA was involved in at the time. In "Overhead in Southeast Asia" she wrote:

"White phosphorus, white phosphorus, mechanical snow, where are you falling?" "I am falling impartially on roads and roofs, on bamboo thickets, on people." 

This was a powerful indictment on the atrocities of chemical warfare. In the other poem, "Life at War" she described the human tragedy in a similar way.

"The disasters numb within us, caught in the chest, rolling in the brain like pebbles. the feeling resembles lumps of raw dough..."

Levertov spread her anti-war message through her literary work. After reading her poems we cannot escape her powerful message that the conflict was both horrific and futile.