The Wedding Ring- Denise Levertov.

I think I am growing to love Levertov's poems. They speak so many things to readers, and she never says anything directly. She uses so many metaphors and unique styles of writing that make us look into the poem and really think about what she is trying to say, rather than just having the answer right in front of us. (Which is absolutely no fun!)

The poem "The Wedding Ring" shows a lot hurt. She was obviously lied to , which is why she hid her ring so far into her basket, it seemed as though she threw it down the bottom of a well, which would seem impossible to retrieve. It isn't obvious if she was lied to, or if her parent left her, but either way the vows for being together have been broken for some kind of reason.

Levertov uses a lot of examples and metaphors that help us picture what she means with things we are already familiar with, "..telephone numbers with no names attached..." knowing that people would be hectic to call someone without knowing whom the number belongs to, so they would probably withdraw to do so.

I am really looking forward to reading more of her poems.

"The Secret" by Denise Levertov

When I first looked at this poem and read it the first time, I honestly did not even understand it, until I analyzed each line and read the poem the way the author intended us to. The way the author wrote this poem was amazing, to me it seemed as though she is really making us put the effort into reading her poem otherwise we won't understand what the heck she is saying.
It was as if the author tried to tell us "Reach each line carefully and see what I mean" to find her little secret hidden in her poem, just as the girls in her story found something in her writing.

When Lebertov writes that she wishes she would know what secret the other girls have found in a line that she herself wrote, and how she wishes to see and interpret things just as they did, it makes me think that maybe she cannot see what they see because each person has their own perception, their own way of viewing things. Just as I am analyzing Levertov's poem, I will find a different meaning than you, because something might pertain to my life, but not to yours because we have not gone through the same things, even though we are both reading the same poem. I think that even if the girls told her the secret in her lines, she would not be able to see it herself because they have a different view of things.

She also mentions how the girls forgot the poem they had read and probably even forgot the meaning in her poem, but being as curious as she is, and not finding their meaning in her own poem, she became obssessed with wanting to know what the meaning is...when in reality everyone finds their own meaning in what they read. Their own little "Secret".

My opinion : I love the way Levertov wrote this poem, she mentions how she feels that the girls found meaning in her lines, when in reality they found meaning in the poem as a whole, which is why she is probably making us read her poem by lines carefully by breaking up her thoughts the way she did.