Philip Levine: Limousine Proletarian?

The writer of this unconscionable piece is obviously an embittered and unhappy man with, at best, a superficial knowledge of poetry. When he says that Levine’s anti-Fascist stance in the time of the Spanish Civil War is “an affectation” and calls the men and women who were slaughtered at the hands of Franco and Hitler’s air force at Guernica “the losers,” he demonstrates, even if subconsciously, a repugnant mindset and a heart without compassion.
Bill Sherman
Margate, N.J.
August 17, 2011

Patrick Hazard replies:

Until I read Levine’s “ought to biography” and his grandstanding remarks at being chosen laureate, I was a great Levine fan. I cited my years of university teaching only to give credibility to my sad belief that most of the poetry writing phenomena don’t give a hoot or a holler for those at the short end of the American cashocracy. I do. So did Levine.

*
Oh, come on Patrick, poets have always invented their personae. Think Edith Sitwell. Think James Whitcomb Riley, my Indiana hero.

What about Levine’s poetry? He was named poet laureate for it, not for his presumed working-class credentials, which after all are largely the emphasis of journalists who are always looking for a handle to write about poets, or artists of all kinds.

You will notice I do not list all the dirty or cushy jobs I had before I was rescued by the draft board and sent off to win a war.
Gerald Weales
University City/ Philadelphia
August 17, 2011

Editor’s note: The writer is a retired English professor at Penn.