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.

-Philip Levine

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I Believed Even Then That If I

Philip Levine

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.

Topic

Writing

Giving

Joy

If That Voice That You Created That Is Most Alive In The Poem Isn't Carried Throughout The Whole Poem, Then I Destroy Where It's Not There, And I Reconstruct It So That That Voice Is The Dominant Voice In The Poem.

Voice

Alive

Reconstruction