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Poets on Poetry
Don't Ask
Interviews with the poet Philip Levine on the subject of his poetry
- GenresPoetryNonfictionEssays
192 pages, Paperback
First published June 15, 1981
37 people want to read
About the author
Philip Levine
141 books156 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
February 6, 2024
3.75 stars
June 27, 2025
Repetitive ash but got me into reading poetry again
December 21, 2007
Don't Ask, combined with Levine's "So Ask", is a great combination to read. Reading both books guides you through Levine's development, not so much as a poet, but as a person with a larger understanding of life, love, spirituality.
The interviews gathered in "Don't Ask" are often reflective of the books title through responses containing a condescending angst with high regards of sarcasm. So Ask, is gentle. So Ask, shows Levine's full display of Fatherhood.
The interviews gathered in "Don't Ask" are often reflective of the books title through responses containing a condescending angst with high regards of sarcasm. So Ask, is gentle. So Ask, shows Levine's full display of Fatherhood.
November 17, 2014
This was a very interesting collection of interviews with Philip Levine. He’s combative - funny - charming - and smart. His thoughts on poetry and his writing were the most honest I’ve read in this series. He is often contentious in these interviews which is great. It seems to me he speaks to how it really works for him - rather than how people might imagine or like to say that it works for him. I am very glad I read this.
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June 13, 2009Interviews with Levine, about his work and his life. I re-read this book while I was reading it. (kept going back to parts)
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November 8, 2017I have a signed copy, having heard Levine at a reading. I feel his voice and personality in these pages,
and love his unpretentious wisdom. Opening sentences of the preface, "Of what possible use or interest is this book?" So many times h. aving been asked my opinion, I've answered honestly, "Who
cares what I think? I've changed my mind so many times about so many things that all that seems certain is that I'll change it again. So these interviews are full of contradictions and I have left them
that way to reflect who I am."
His words point at the power of poetry, to capture what it is like "to be".
Much more to say about this... another time.
and love his unpretentious wisdom. Opening sentences of the preface, "Of what possible use or interest is this book?" So many times h. aving been asked my opinion, I've answered honestly, "Who
cares what I think? I've changed my mind so many times about so many things that all that seems certain is that I'll change it again. So these interviews are full of contradictions and I have left them
that way to reflect who I am."
His words point at the power of poetry, to capture what it is like "to be".
Much more to say about this... another time.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews