Quote #49540
I like to find
what’s not found
at once, but lies
within something of another nature
in repose, distinct.
what’s not found
at once, but lies
within something of another nature
in repose, distinct.
Denise Levertov
About This Quote
This quote needs no introduction—at least for now. We're working on adding more context soon.
Interpretation
The speaker describes a preference for discovery that is indirect and patient: what matters is not the immediately obvious, but what is embedded—quietly “in repose”—inside something seemingly different. The lines suggest an aesthetic and ethical stance toward perception: meaning is not always on the surface, and the act of attention can uncover a distinct presence concealed within another “nature.” Read as a poetics, it values the slow work of reading and looking, where insight arrives by recognizing what is latent rather than by seizing what is instantly available. It also hints at the autonomy of the discovered thing—“distinct”—even while it is housed within another form.



