The Secret by Denise Levertov

This poem by Denise Levertov is a poem focusing around the "secret" two girls discover while reading a line in a poem. The author of the poem, Levertov, is also the author to the poem that had the secret in it. I think that Ms. Levertov wanted someone to get meaning out of her poem (as many of us do), and when they told her they found a secret in her poem, she wasn't all that curious.

"I who don't know the
secret wrote
the line. They
told me

(through a third person)
they had found it
but not what it was
not even

what line it was."

Honestly, that would drive me nuts!! Because I'd be sooo curious as to what they discovered about my poem! However, Denise Levertov has almost the oppsoite reaction--she's almost glad they didn't tell her what they thought was the secret to life because maybe she's trying to figure it out herself...? Okay, if I didn't know the answer to something of that importance, I would be more than willing to hear other people's opinions, but no, Ms. Levertov instead talks about how the girls will forget about her poem in a week, so, along the girls, she will never know what they thought.

I felt that the diction in this poem was very light and even almost peaceful--like Denise Levertov was really okay with not knowing. She was just happy that they thought there was a secret to begin with.

"I love them
for finding what
I can't find,

and for loving me
for the line I wrote,
and for forgetting it
so that

a thousand times, till death
finds them, they may
discover it again, in other
lines

in other
happenings. And for
wanting to know it,
for

assuming there is
such a secret, yes,
for that
most of all."


It really is a beautiful poem--I especially liked the ending and the mystery that we, as the reader, never find out what the secret was. Oh, and hey! It's not really a dark poem either! :D