Monday, February 15, 2021

Enjambment and poetic form as "wavering / redefinition": Denise Levertov's "Into the Interior"

Denise Levertov's "Into the Interior" begins with landscape: "Mountain, mountain, mountain, / marking time. Each / nameless, wall beyond wall, wavering / redefinition of / horizon." The three initial "mountains" may map space, but the second line turns that space into time. The "marking" of lineation repeats in the second line break's shift from the specificity of "each" to its erasure in "nameless", while within that third line the double solidity of the mountain "walls" is "wavering" with alliteration. These poetic effects are then summarized in an enjambment that acts out enjambment as a "wavering / definition" in which a surprising abstraction ("definition") makes "wavering" itself "waver" like a shimmering mirage. (Andrew Shields, #111words, 15 February 2021)

 

Image - Blue-mountain-range-26305-1920x1080-1-.jpg ...

No comments: