Tesserae Book

I'd read a few books of Denise Levertov's poetry and have admired it. The details of her life were vague to me, mostly because her poetry doesn't narrate that and focuses on distinct subjects. Terrerae did much more than to increase my acquaintaceship with this major poet. She took vignettes from her life, each with events that told, odd events too, and they were fascinating. These extend from her childhood in Wales and London where her Jewish father was a Christian clergyman, converted, and where her Welsh mother figured a great deal. She thought herself a painter at first and has some remarkable memoirs about an attempted bohemian lifestyle and about her friendships. A nurse during the London bombings, she concentrates on individuals she knew then. This is all written with a poet's eye for images so that reading it, I felt the setting constantly. It was very enjoyable, especially her profiles of people that had an effect her life or were stuck in her memory.