Please enable JavaScript.

Coggle requires JavaScript to display documents.

'The Malice of Innocence' by Denise Levertov (1972) (The…

- - - - Levertov highlights how, in order to feel a sense of success and achievement in a large institution, focus shifts to working hard, being dedicated, ordered, disciplined and obedient. However, she warns readers that being single-mindedly devoted to achieving success in each of these areas can come at a cost. The cost is having personal responsibility and human compassion suppressed and she recalls a time in her youth when it happened to her.
        
        In Levertov's reflection, the hospital represents death, pain and weakness and therefore acts as a metaphorical criticism of humanity's sickness and decaying morals that come as a result of wholeheartedly embracing institutional paradigms. The poem can be seen as an extended metaphor of humanity's failings and inherent sickness in adopting the global institution's ways of thinking
        
        'we were gravely dancing- starched/ in our caps, our trained replies,/ our whispering aprons-the-well-rehearsed/ pavanne of power.' A pavanne is a slow dance and here Levertov links it to her feelings of power and control over the patients.
        
        She remembers the motivation behind her 'performance' of duties - power rather than compassions. Her use of rhetorical question 'Yes, wasn't it power, and not compassion/ gave our young hearts/ their hard fervor?' shows her growing awareness that she was indeed lacking compassion towards the patients and instead, wanting to feel success and achievement for herself.
        
        'But I loved the power/ of our ordered nights,/ gleaming surfaces I'd helped to polish'.
        
        The adjective 'gleaming' suggests something clean, cold and clinical and further reinforces that she was more connected to satisfying the objectives of her work than to helping the patients.
- - - - In this poem, Levertov is watching 'Sunday Bloody Sunday' - a 1971 British Drama directed by John Schlesinger. The film features a 'slow shot of a ward at night' which acts as a catalyst for Levertov to reflect on a time long past when she was a young nurse during WWII and working in a hospital. The sibilant 's' sound coupled with the low vowel ''ow' lengthen and slow the pace of the opening, showing how Levertov's attention has been captured.
        
        Upon reflection, Levertov realises that her youthful innocence and quest to personally succeed led her to being malicious instead of compassionate towards her patients
      - The title 'Malice of Innocence' is a paradox. 'Innocence' is associated with goodness while 'malice' is associated with evil. Levertov indicates to the reader that there will be a conflict of good and evil unfolding. This conflict will occur as a result of her reflecting on her past actions and motivations from her current adult perspectives.
      - Levertov adopts a meditative pace throughout her use of form - two line stanza varied to one or three lines, and as a result the pace is slow. A solemn tone and atmosphere is also created. This solemnity stemmed from Leverton's tense realisation and discover, as an adult, that she sacrificed compassion and empathy for success, order and discipline when she was a young nurse.
      - When Levertov's flashback takes her back into a hospital ward, her immediate association is not with people, but rather tangible objects such as a 'Greenshaded lamp glowing/ on the charged desk/ clipboards stacked on the desk for the night.' The listing gives a sense of order, in addition to the crisp 't' sound which adds to the sense of organisation.
        
        Levertov waits for 'morning stirrings' in a room that is 'warm, orderly and full of breathings as a cowbarn.' The listing coupled with a simile further detaches Levertov from the patient's humanity
      - Levertov recalls her time as a nurse on a hospital ward as being one of 'rhythm, a choreographic decorum:' The use of music and dance jargon to represent her nightly visits to the patients further detaches her from their humanity, showing how their visits were choreographed and were for show, rather than for the sake of helping the patients out.
- - - - Levertov recalls her time as a nurse on a hospital ward as being on of 'rhythm, a choreographic decorum:' Here she utilise music and dance jargon to show how her nightly visits were choreographed routine, robot-like, a ritual, and that there was a sense of show and performance on her pat to complete her rounds.
        
        As a result of globalisation, individuals have become detached from humanity and have become focused on completing tasks, order and routine.
        
        'But I loved power/ of our ordered nights,/ gleaming surfaces I'd helped to polish.'
        
        Humanity's search for power and control will never end. Here, Levertov explains how the was more connected to satisfying the objectives of her work than to helping the patients.