Philip Levine
Lesson Plans and Teaching Resources

| Biography and Background | | Lesson Plans |

Biography and Background

Philip Levine
Brief biography from the Library of Congress.

Philip Levine
Audio, video, articles, criticism: online Resources from the Library of Congress.

Philip Levine Criticism
Brief biography, overview of criticism.

Lesson Plans and Teaching Resources

"Alone"
Text of the poem.

"After Dinner"
Text of the poem and a downloadable audio file. Garrison Keillor begins reading at 3:15.

"Belle Isle, 1949" by Philip Levine
Video of Levine reading the poem, analysis, teaching tips, and related poems.

"Belle Isle, 1949" by Philip Levine
In the short video, the poet reads his poem. Scroll down for discussion questions and analysis.

"The Blizzard"
Text and a reading by Garrison Keillor (starts at 2:43).

Celebrating Philip Levine
Levine's "An Extraordinary Morning" (text of poem included) paired with a critical piece by Dwight Garner, a book critic at The Times. Students are invited to read both and comment.

"Coming Close"
Text of the poem.

"The Mercy"
Text of the poem with a downloadable audio file. Garrison Keillor begins reading the poem at 2:02.

A Reading of "An Ode to Salt"
Poem by Pablo Neruda, translated and read by Philip Levine. Does not include text of the poem.

"On My Own"
Text of the poem with a downloadable audio file. Garrison Keillor begins reading the poem at 1:33.

"The Phone Call"
Text of the poem with a downloadable audio file. Garrison Keillor begins reading the poem at 3:11.

"They Feed They Lion"
Text of the poem.

"What Work Is"
In this video (2:22) the poet reads his poem as part of his presentation at the AFL-CIO in 2011, while he was Poet Laureate. The video resides at YouTube.