The Secret

“Asphodel, That Greeny Flower” by William Carlos Williams (1962)

Williams was an early influence on Levertov. In “Asphodel,” one of Williams’s longer poems, the speaker declares that people die every day because they can’t identify the “news” in poetry. In conversation with Levertov’s poem, the “news” is akin to Levertov’s “secret”—the need to find these hidden meanings is key to avoiding unfulfilling lives.

“When We Look Up” by Denise Levertov (1966)

This poem echoes some of the themes of “The Secret,” such as the urgency of the moment and the elusiveness of meaning. “When We Look Up” instructs the reader to look into other people’s faces as mirrors of their own—an idea that repeats one of the features of “The Secret,” that identity isn’t a confined, specific concept. In both poems, the world is an open place that demands exploration and attentiveness. Each poem suggests that a person will miss something—a secret or a face—if they don’t surrender themselves to the moment.

“Speech to the Young: Speech to the Progress-Toward (Among them Nora and Henry III)” by Gwendolyn Brooks (1970)

Brooks’s poem uses the same accessible voice as Levertov’s poem. While Levertov’s poem describes the actions of girls, Brooks's poem has an engaging speaker explicitly addressing young people. Like Levertov, Brooks rejects the idea that the meaning of life is in specific accomplishments or goals: Life is not about the “battles won” (Line 10), so reader should “[l]ive in the along” (Line 12)—the interstitial moments.