The Jacob's Ladder by Denise Levertov
"The Jacob's Ladder" by Denise Levertov draws inspiration from the biblical story of Jacob's dream in Genesis 28:10-17, where Jacob envisions a ladder connecting Earth to the heavens, with angels ascending and descending. In her poem, Levertov interprets this ladder as a metaphor for the creative process of poetry itself, suggesting that it serves as a bridge between the human experience and the divine. She presents the ladder as a stairway made of sharp, rosy stone, indicating a challenging journey for those who seek to ascend and connect with the divine. This imagery highlights the struggle and pain inherent in the creative process, yet it also implies that such hardships can bring consolation to the climber. The poem introduces a thought-provoking ambiguity regarding the source of poetry: is it a human endeavor or something inspired by a greater, incorporeal force? Levertov's depiction of the stairway amidst a gray skyline further emphasizes the complexity of this journey, prompting readers to reflect on the relationship between the corporeal and the divine. Ultimately, the poem invites contemplation of whether poetry is merely a mortal creation or if it possesses a life of its own, ascending towards something sacred.
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The Jacob's Ladder by Denise Levertov
Excerpted from an article in Magill’s Survey of American Literature, Revised Edition
First published: 1961 (collected in The Jacob’s Ladder, 1961)
Type of work: Poem
The Work
Invoking the story of Jacob’s dream from Genesis 28:10-17, “The Jacob’s Ladder” utilizes the dream as metaphor for poetic construction. The plot from Genesis maintains that when Jacob came to rest his head at the end of the day, he dreamed that he saw God’s angels ascending and descending a great ladder reaching from Earth to the heavens. God announced to Jacob that all the land that he surveys should belong to him and his descendants, and his descendants should be so many that they would be as the dust is to the Earth. Jacob awakened and acknowledged that this place upon which he had slept was holy and touched by God.
Levertov picks up the story and utilizes it as a leitmotif (with subtle emendation) for her thoughts on a poetic construction that, she asserts, can approach the divine. In the poem, her narrator observes that the ladder is, in fact, a stairway (possibly referring to one of many actual geographical locations, such as the cut-in steps of Cheddar Gorge in the United Kingdom) of a cut, rosy stone meant as much, if not more, for human steps as for those of angels, who would not need to tread upon the tangible. However, the stairway itself is sharp, jagged, and a difficult climb that scrapes the knees of the climber who would dare ascend it and approach God in Heaven. Yet this pain, in some way, consoles the climber.
The last line suggests an interesting ambiguity in the poem, as it seems to imply that the ascendant of the stairs is not a mortal but rather the poem itself ascending into the heavens. This ambiguity is hardly minor, however, as the possible difference in meanings allows for a shift in the agency of the written word: Does poetry come from a person, or is it inspired by something incorporeal, living and breathing with its own life? That Levertov constructs the stairway not as a mystical, gleaming thing made of evanescent materials but rather as one made of rock lends to a particular reading, but even this thought becomes complicated as the staircase sits in front of a doubting, gray skyline. The tenor of the piece suggests that the biblical Jacob’s remarks are indeed true, but whether poetry is the stuff of the divine or the corporeal is left for the reader to ponder.
Bibliography
Block, Edward, ed. Renascence: Essays on Values in Literature 50, no. 1 (Fall, 1997). Special Levertov issue.
Gwynne, R. S., ed. American Poets Since World War II. Vol. 5 in Dictionary of Literary Biography, edited by Matthew J. Bruccoli. Detroit: Gale Research, 1980.
Hollenberg, Donna. “’History as I Desired It’: Ekphrasis as Postmodern Witness in Denise Levertov’s Late Poetry.” Modernism/Modernity 10, no. 3 (September, 2003): 519-537.
Janssen, Ronald, ed. Twentieth Century Literature 38, no. 3 (Fall, 1992). Special Levertov issue.
Little, Anne Colclough, and Susie Paul, eds. Denise Levertov: New Perspectives. West Cornwall, Conn.: Locust Hill Press, 2000.
Long, Mark. “Affinities of Faith and Place in the Poetry of Denise Levertov.” ISLE 6, no. 2 (Summer, 1999): 31-40.
Rodgers, Audrey. Denise Levertov: The Poetry of Engagement. Cranbury, N.J.: Associated University Presses, 1993.
Wagner, Linda W. Denise Levertov. New York: Twayne, 1967.
Wagner, Linda W., ed. Denise Levertov: In Her Own Province. New York: New Directions, 1979.
Wagner-Martin, Linda, ed. Critical Essays on Denise Levertov. Boston: G. K. Hall, 1991.