What industry did phillip levine make his money in

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Search more than 3, biographies of contemporary and classic poets. Born in Detroit, Michigan, on January 10, , Philip Levine was formally educated in the Detroit public school system and at Wayne University now Wayne State University , Michigan’s only urban public research university. After graduation, Levine worked a number of industrial jobs, including the night shift at the Chevrolet Gear and Axle factory, reading and writing poems in his off hours. In , after teaching technical writing in Iowa City, Levine travelled to California, where he hoped to relocate with his wife and two children. About writing poetry when not working the night shift, Levine wrote: «I believed even then that if I could transform my experience into poetry I would give it the value and dignity it did not begin to possess on its own. I thought too that if I could write about it I could come to understand it; I believed that if I could understand my life—or at least the part my work played in it—I could embrace it with some degree of joy, an element conspicuously missing from my life. And, in , Levine was named the 18th U. Poet Laureate by the Library of Congress. After retiring from teaching, Levine divided his time between Brooklyn, New York, and Fresno, California, until his death on February 14, Knopf , were published posthumously in The Last Shift Alfred A. The author of numerous collections of poetry, Adrienne Rich wrote poems examining such things as Materials for Teachers Materials for Teachers Home.

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The son of Russian-Jewish immigrants, Levine was born and raised in industrial Detroit, where he began working in the auto factories at the age of As a young boy in the midst of the Great Depression of the s, he was fascinated by the events of the Spanish Civil War. His heroes were not only those individuals who struggled against fascism but also ordinary folks who worked at hopeless jobs simply to stave off poverty. Nobody was speaking for them. Levine earned his BA from Wayne State University in and began attending writing workshops at the University of Iowa, as an unregistered student, in He took classes with Robert Lowell and John Berryman , and would later pay tribute to Berryman’s teaching influence on his development as a poet. Shortly thereafter, he began teaching at the California State University, Fresno, where he would remain until Though Levine did not return to live in Detroit, its people and economy would remain central concerns of his poetry. Both bear witness to the visionary ideal destroyed.

To Cipriano, in the Wind. At Wayne University, as it was then known, Mr. Buying Earth. The Street with No Shop on the Corner. The Radio. Chicago Tribune, March 2, , sec. Artley; three sons, Mark, John and Teddy; a twin brother, Edward; another brother, Eli; five grandchildren; and one great-grandchild. In June , Levine hosted the annual U. The Second Going.

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Harper’s, Whatt, As a young boy in the midst of the Great Depression of the s, he was fascinated by the events of the Spanish Civil War. In JuneLevine hosted the annual U. Levine was the first member of pgillip family to earn a college degree. Shortly thereafter, he began teaching at the California State University, Fresno, where he would remain until Publishers Weekly, September 26,p. Levine, who was also a regular guest instructor at New York University, had homes in Fresno and Brooklyn. Froggy Frenchman. Show More. Levine, the poet spoke of the influence of his blue-collar background on his later career.

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Philip Levine, a former United States poet laureate whose work was vibrantly, angrily and often painfully alive with the sound, smell and sinew of heavy manual labor, died on Saturday morning at his home in Fresno, Calif.

He was The cause was pancreatic cancer, said Christopher Buckley, a longtime friend and fellow poet. Levine served as poet laureate from to At his death, he was an emeritus professor of English at California State University, Fresno, where he had taught from to In spare, realistic free verse, Mr.

Levine explored the subjects that had long animated his work: his gritty Detroit childhood; the soul-numbing factory jobs he held as a youth; Spain, where he lived for some time as an adult; and the Spanish anarchists of the s, a personal passion since he was a boy. Levine in Levine wrote:. Because of its strong narrative thrust, frequent autobiographical bent and tendency to shun conventional poetic devices, some reviewers dismissed it as merely prose with line breaks.

Others found monotony in his revisiting the same themes again and. But many admired his deceptively simple style, which could belie the carefully worked out cadences beneath its colloquial surface. They also praised Mr. As he later said, his childhood was shaped by several signal events, among them the Depression, the death of his father when Philip was 5 and an infatuation with poetry that began when he was in his teens.

Another event was the Spanish Civil War, in which many of young Mr. It reads in part:. Starting at 14, Mr. Levine held a series of industrial jobs: working in a soap factory, hefting cases of soft drinks at a bottling plant, manning a punch press at Chevrolet Gear and Axle and operating a jackhammer at Detroit Transmission.

Levine was the first member of his family to earn a college degree. At Wayne University, as it was then known, Mr. Levine included a moving portrait of Mr. Levine, who was also a regular guest instructor at New York University, had homes in Fresno and Brooklyn.

He is survived his wife, Frances J. Artley; three sons, Mark, John and Teddy; a twin brother, Edward; another brother, Eli; five grandchildren; and one great-grandchild. Levine, the poet spoke of the influence of his blue-collar background on his later career. Levine said. The fat stacks of breweries hold their tongues. What industry did phillip levine make his money in, papers, hands, the stems of birches dirtied with words.

The captain closes his log and falls asleep. Tonight I shall enter my life after being at sea for ages, quietly, in a hospital named for an automobile.

Levine was of Russian Jewish descent. He worked at a series of industrial jobs before he began teaching literature and creative writing at California State UniversityFresno — In addition, he was poet in residence at a number of colleges and universities. In his poetry Levine attempted to speak for those whose intelligence, emotions, and imagination are constrained by tedious and harsh moneu conditions. His poems offer graphic images of gray cities, meaningless talk and actions, subtle humiliations, dispossession, and despair. He wrote in free verse and in lines of kn rhythm, and his language was unambiguous.

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Levine, inspired by a visit to Barcelona, wrote the poems of The Names of the Lost in honour of the loyalists who fought in the Spanish Civil War — Levine won a second National Book Award in for his collection What Work Isan honour that may have partly inspired the backward look that he indudtry in The Bread of Time: Toward an Autobiographyreissueda series of autobiographical essays that un critic called both elegant and tough-minded. Among his later books of poetry are the Pulitzer Prize-winning collection The Simple Truthfilled with elegiac despair, and Unselected Poems leivne From to Levine served as poet laureate consultant in poetry to the Library of Congress. Philip Levine. Article Media. Info Print Cite. Submit Feedback. Thank you for your feedback. Philip Levine American poet. Get exclusive access to content from our First Edition with your subscription. Subscribe today.