"Obscure Directions": Interpreting Denise Levertov's Ambivalence about Ezra Pound

This essay documents Levertov's ambivalence about Ezra Pound as it appears in a variety of sources, both public and private. It explores the discovery of this ambivalence in Levertov's life and in her poetic development, particularly in relation to her ethnic identity and friendship with members of Pound's circle. It also discusses the biographer's problems in interpreting this documentary evidence in the light of such recognized psychological issues as empathy, idealization, and anger, issues particularly pertinent to the female biographer/subject relationship. The essay shows that, in writing about Levertov's ambivalence about Pound, the biographer undergoes a similar process of self-discovery, one that uncovers differences as well as points of imaginative congruity.