smashing the windows of sleep and dream

smashing the windows of history

a whiteness scattering

In hailstones

each a mirror

for many's eyes.

The last poem in the collection provides a striking contrast to "During the Eichman Trial." "A Solitude" dissects a fleeting emotion: the poet sees a blind man, and is overcome with a feeling of "strange joy/to gaze my fill at a stranger's face." It is a remarkable poem, and it illustrates Miss Levertov's talent to perceive and see meaning in the seemingly inconsequential aspects of our lives.

She captures our vague feeling of joy when we approach an animal and he doesn't "quicken his trot" to avoid us; the evanescent feeling of horror when a lover senses the "last traces of warmth.. fading in you"; the complex of emotions she feels when she observes simple scenes like a man walking two dogs on a rainy evening or a young woman wading into a river to draw water.

It is this sort of awakening, which Miss Levertov experiences in almost every aspect of life, that she imparts in her poetry. It makes reading her poetry a rewarding, highly moving discovery.