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They Feed They Lion & The Names of the Lost: Two Books of Poems
A major reissue in one volume of two early books by one of our finest living poets. In an essay on his career, Edward Hirsch describes They Feed They Lion as his "most eloquent book of industrial Detroit . . . The magisterial title poem--with its fierce diction and driving rhythms--is Levine's hymn to communal rage, to acting in unison." Of The Names of the "In these poems Levine explicitly links the people of his childhood whom 'no one remembers' with his doomed heroes from the Spanish Civil War."
- GenresPoetry
135 pages, Paperback
First published March 30, 1999
About the author
Philip Levine
141 books157 followersPhilip Levine (b. January 10, 1928, Detroit, Michigan. d. February 14, 2015, Fresno, California) was a Pulitzer Prize-winning American poet best known for his poems about working-class Detroit.
He taught for over thirty years at the English Department of California State University, Fresno and held teaching positions at other universities as well. He is appointed to serve as the Poet Laureate of the United States for 2011–2012.
Philip Levine grew up in industrial Detroit, the second of three sons and the first of identical twins of Jewish immigrant parents. His father, Harry Levine owned a used auto parts business, his mother Esther Priscol (Prisckulnick) Levine was a bookseller. When Levine was five years old, his father died. Growing up, he faced the anti-Semitism embodied by the pro-Hitler radio priest Father Coughlin.
Levine started to work in car manufacturing plants at the age of 14. He graduated from Detroit Central High School in 1946 and went to college at Wayne University (now Wayne State University) in Detroit, where he began to write poetry, encouraged by his mother, to whom he later dedicated the book of poems The Mercy. Levine got his A.B. in 1950 and went to work for Chevrolet and Cadillac in what he calls "stupid jobs". He married his first wife Patty Kanterman in 1951. The marriage lasted until 1953. In 1953 he went to the University of Iowa without registering, studying among others with poets Robert Lowell and John Berryman, the latter of which Levine called his "one great mentor". In 1954 he graduated with a mail-order masters degree with a thesis on John Keats' "Ode to Indolence", and married actress Frances J. Artley. He returned to the University of Iowa teaching technical writing, completing his Master of Fine Arts degree in 1957. The same year, he was awarded the Jones Fellowship in Poetry at Stanford University. In 1958 he joined the English Department at California State University in Fresno, where he taught until his retirement in 1992. He has also taught at many other universities, among them New York University as Distinguished Writer-in-Residence, at Columbia, Princeton, Brown, Tufts, and the University of California at Berkeley.
He taught for over thirty years at the English Department of California State University, Fresno and held teaching positions at other universities as well. He is appointed to serve as the Poet Laureate of the United States for 2011–2012.
Philip Levine grew up in industrial Detroit, the second of three sons and the first of identical twins of Jewish immigrant parents. His father, Harry Levine owned a used auto parts business, his mother Esther Priscol (Prisckulnick) Levine was a bookseller. When Levine was five years old, his father died. Growing up, he faced the anti-Semitism embodied by the pro-Hitler radio priest Father Coughlin.
Levine started to work in car manufacturing plants at the age of 14. He graduated from Detroit Central High School in 1946 and went to college at Wayne University (now Wayne State University) in Detroit, where he began to write poetry, encouraged by his mother, to whom he later dedicated the book of poems The Mercy. Levine got his A.B. in 1950 and went to work for Chevrolet and Cadillac in what he calls "stupid jobs". He married his first wife Patty Kanterman in 1951. The marriage lasted until 1953. In 1953 he went to the University of Iowa without registering, studying among others with poets Robert Lowell and John Berryman, the latter of which Levine called his "one great mentor". In 1954 he graduated with a mail-order masters degree with a thesis on John Keats' "Ode to Indolence", and married actress Frances J. Artley. He returned to the University of Iowa teaching technical writing, completing his Master of Fine Arts degree in 1957. The same year, he was awarded the Jones Fellowship in Poetry at Stanford University. In 1958 he joined the English Department at California State University in Fresno, where he taught until his retirement in 1992. He has also taught at many other universities, among them New York University as Distinguished Writer-in-Residence, at Columbia, Princeton, Brown, Tufts, and the University of California at Berkeley.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
March 20, 2022
This was a very good book recommended by a FB Reading Group. Eva and Remy are two forgeries who come up with a secret code they have written in a book to remember the names of the children they helped escape from the Holocaust in hopes the children will one day be reunited with their families and never forget whom they really were named. Eva learns that there is more to life than a name. A must read for people who like to read about the Holocaust like I do.
June 8, 2010
“Angel Butcher” is one of my all-time favorite poems. It has everything I seek in a first-rate poem: fascinating premise, light narrative, vivid imagery, an inspiring finish, and breathtaking metaphor on both the micro (line) and macro (holistic) levels. It is well grounded in reality but contains a mythic element. It’s personal without being elliptical, emotional without becoming sentimental, clever but not disingenuous, easy to read but not overly-simplistic. I wish the entire volume were as good, but it’s not.
Levine is fundamentally an excellent poet with a knack for profound metaphor. His syntax is mildly inventive but never so technical as to become oblique. His diction is spot on, almost always, and he does an excellent job of modulating his voice so that it is always sincere, always intimate, never confessional. But in these two books, now out of print and republished here together, his talents, which are vast, reach their full potential only occasionally and usually in brief spurts, lasting for no more than a few lines at a time. They Feed They Lion and The Names of the Lost contain precious few poems that measure up to “Angel Butcher.”
They Feed They Lion, which contains “Angel Butcher” is a chronicle of the lives of common people struggling with poverty in urban Detroit. The Names of the Lost is an elegiac collection concerned mainly with the aftermath of the Spanish Civil War and of the two is, in my opinion, the stronger book. Other highlights include parts of “Cry for Nothing,” part IV of “Angels of Detroit,” “They Feed They Lion,” “How Much Can It Hurt?” “To P.L., 1916-1937,” parts of “No One Remembers,” “For the Poets of Chile,” “A Late Answer,” and most of “To My God in His Sickness.”
Levine is fundamentally an excellent poet with a knack for profound metaphor. His syntax is mildly inventive but never so technical as to become oblique. His diction is spot on, almost always, and he does an excellent job of modulating his voice so that it is always sincere, always intimate, never confessional. But in these two books, now out of print and republished here together, his talents, which are vast, reach their full potential only occasionally and usually in brief spurts, lasting for no more than a few lines at a time. They Feed They Lion and The Names of the Lost contain precious few poems that measure up to “Angel Butcher.”
They Feed They Lion, which contains “Angel Butcher” is a chronicle of the lives of common people struggling with poverty in urban Detroit. The Names of the Lost is an elegiac collection concerned mainly with the aftermath of the Spanish Civil War and of the two is, in my opinion, the stronger book. Other highlights include parts of “Cry for Nothing,” part IV of “Angels of Detroit,” “They Feed They Lion,” “How Much Can It Hurt?” “To P.L., 1916-1937,” parts of “No One Remembers,” “For the Poets of Chile,” “A Late Answer,” and most of “To My God in His Sickness.”
January 2, 2009
The title poem "They Feed They Lion" is one of my favorite poems. Another great book from this working class poet out of Detroit. The phrase comes from a co-worker when he was doing factory work and it stuck with him years till he wrote this poem. This man was an inspiration to many Chicano writers who have become the poets they are because of him. He eventually taught in Chico, CA and has a legacy of writers who were mentored by him. I would have loved to study with him, or to have been at his birthday party last year in NYC when he turned 90! A man of grace to admire and read.
March 30, 2008
if i loved all the poems in these books as much as i love a big handful, there would be five stars lit up instead of four. his best stuff has a nice apocalyptic feel to it. but with compassion. yeah... a compassionate apocalypse.
"We burn this city everyday."
"We burn this city everyday."
March 9, 2015
I prefer better The Names of The Lost a lot more than the other volume. Levine reaches his best expression in poems contrasting present and past experiences, and communicating a sense of loss. An absolute master.
January 29, 2008
After he invented Levi jeans, Philip went into seclusion and started writing poetry. I prefer his later work; this is early stuff is good.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews