A London Plane Tree And Other Verse

by Amy Levy

Here, Where Your Garden Fenced About And Still Is, Here, Where The Unmoved Summer Air Is Sweet With Mixed Delight Of Lavender And Lilies, Dreaming I Linger In The Noontide Heat.

Genres: Poetry, LGBT, 19th Century

48 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2008

About the author

Levy was born in Clapham, London, the second daughter of Lewis Levy and Isobel Levin. Her Jewish family was mildly observant, but as an adult Levy no longer practised Judaism; she continued to identify with the Jews as a people.

She was educated at Brighton High School, Brighton, and studied at Newnham College, Cambridge; she was the first Jewish student at Newnham, when she arrived in 1879, but left after four terms.

Her circle of friends included Clementina Black, Dollie Radford, Eleanor Marx (daughter of Karl Marx), and Olive Schreiner. Levy wrote stories, essays, and poems for periodicals, some popular and others literary. Her writing career began early; her poem "Ida Grey" appearing in the journal the Pelican when she was only fourteen. The stories "Cohen of Trinity" and "Wise in Their Generation," both published in Oscar Wilde's magazine "Women's World," are among her best. Her second novel Reuben Sachs (1888) was concerned with Jewish identity and mores in the England of her time (and was consequently controversial); Her first novel Romance of a Shop (1888) depicts four sisters who experience the pleasures and hardships of running a business in London during the 1880s. Other writings as well, including the daring Ballad of Religion and Marriage, reveal feminist concerns. Xantippe and Other Verses (1881) includes a poem in the voice of Socrates's wife; the volume A Minor Poet and Other Verse (1884) has dramatic monologues too, as well as lyric poems. In 1886, Levy began writing a series of essays on Jewish culture and literature for the Jewish Chronicle, including The Ghetto at Florence, The Jew in Fiction, Jewish Humour and Jewish Children. Her final book of poems, A London Plane-Tree (1889), contains lyrics that are among the first to show the influence of French symbolism.

Traveling in Europe, she met Vernon Lee in Florence in 1886, and it has been said that she fell in love with her. Vernon Lee (Violet Paget), the fiction writer and literary theorist, was six years older, and inspired the poem To Vernon Lee.

Despite many friends and an active literary life, Levy had suffered from episodes of major depression from an early age which, together with her growing deafness, led her to commit suicide on September 10, 1889, at the age of twenty-seven, by inhaling carbon monoxide. Oscar Wilde wrote an obituary for her in Women's World in which he praised her gifts.
-Wikipedia

Reviews

[Katie Lumsden · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another fantastic collection from Amy Levy.

[Burke De Boer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Her posthumous collection, really incredible, charming and haunting. The urbanism uses pastoral devices but turns the imagery really beautifully to the city, in a time when nature and country was such an escape from industrialization. Then, as now, a good reminder of seeing what the material world around you has to offer. “A London Plane-Tree” and “Ballade of an Omnibus” are highlights of this. “London in July” and “Ballade of a Special Edition” give some tension and complications to the cityscape.

The searching and yearning of being queer and Jewish in Victorian London is powerful. See “To E.,” “Borderland” and “At a Dinner Party.”

[Jacky Chan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Much less aesthetically complex either by today's or even 19th century standards, but very in its depiction of the cityscape from a lesbian woman's perspective. While the poetry may not be great, the voice that emerges from it is fascinating. Would recommend for anyone interested in fin de siecle London and its twilights and new dawns.

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful expression

It is rare that I enjoy, to such a degree, so many of the poems in a book, but in this case, every single one seems to have glimmers of perfect expression that shine through. A beautiful read.

[Shari · Rating 4 out of 5]

A collection of poetry made all the more poignant when knowing that Amy Levy suffered from depression throughout her life and died by her own hand when she was still young.

[Caroline Duggan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved the nature writing in this collection. It is very different to the other collection of hers I have read. My favourite poem of hers is still Xantippe.

[Becky · Rating 2 out of 5]

I’ve read some of Levy’s other works and enjoyed them, and as a person, I think she is absolutely fascinating. This poetry did not call to me, however. I generally like poetry and evokes the power of nature, and I find it hard to relate to people that prefer the chaos of cities, which Levy does. On top of that a lot of it is downright depressing “I’m nothing but pain.” I know that she suffered from a lifelong battle with depression (she committed suicide in her late twenties) and I often can feel her struggling with who she is (a lesbian and a Jew) in the rigid Victorian society she was born in. It’s not bad poetry by any means, it’s very crisp and clear, it’s just not for me.

[Morgan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have a very old, hardcover edition from my campus library and it is absolutely beautiful. She is believed to be a queer writer, and many of her poems read as such, including "The Dinner Party," which is short and lovely and very romantic.