"News Report, September 1991" by Denise Levertov

The Black Mountain poets were a group of poets in the mid-20th century centered around Black Mountain College, an experimental educational institution in Black Mountain, North Carolina that emphasize the study of art as central to a liberal arts education. Black Mountain College attracted various prominent intellectual and educational figures at the time, including Charles Olson, Robert Creely, and Denise Levertov. Black Mountain poets tended to focus on progressive themes and were also revolutionary in developing an innovative poetic form known as projective verse or "open field" poetry, which was espoused by Charles Olson in his 1950 essay "Projective Verse." Open field poetry was designed by Olson to replace more restrictive forms of poetry black Mountain poets believed limited the creative process.

For this blog, I chose to analyze the poem "News Report, September 1991" by Denise Levertov, one of the more renowned Black Mountain poets. In this poem, Levertov criticizes the rationale behind the Persian Gulf War--and in general, all war. Levertov was known throughout her life to be an adamant anti-war activist, and many of her poem, such this one, concerned the futility of war. Satirizing the death toll incurred by military operations in the Persian Gulf, Levertov remarks that the body count was "impossible" and also includes commentary from Lieutenant Colonel Hawkins: "Schwartzkopf's staff estimated fifty to seventy thousand killed in the trenches." Levertove concludes by mentioning the although U.S. military operations in the Persian Gulf resulted in massive human losses, it was "cost-effective," further condemning the actions of the U.S. military in pursuing war.

In addition to its exploration of progressive themes, a major characteristic of Black Mountain poetry, "News Report, September 1991" complex with the form often associated with Black Mountain poetry; that is, it employs the open field style of poetry devised by Charles Olson. As a result, the form of this poem is based around each line, with each line constituting a single though or "utterance." In summary, this poem is a highly appropriate example of a typical Black Mountain poem.