The Secret

Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1964

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Summary

Background

Poem Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Literary Devices

Form and Meter

Levertov uses free verse, eschewing rhyme, meter, and standard form. Nevertheless, the poem is organized: It is composed of nine quatrains (stanzas with four lines), a structure that underscores its content. When the girls discover the secret in a “sudden line of / poetry” (Lines 3-4), the lines break in ways that suggests the location of the secret. However, when the girls “have forgotten / the secret” (Lines 15-16), but they’ll discover it again “a thousand times” (Line 25), the structure builds tension by disseminating the possibility of the secret into many different lines. The poem remains orderly, but the secret no longer exists in a single tidy space.

Within the quatrains, Levertov mimics the messiness of the secret through enjambment, or breaking lines before a natural grammatical pause. Just as the secret suddenly appears in lines of poems and life moments, so do the lines of “The Secret” suddenly end. The enjambments link to Levertov’s concept of “organic poetry,” where “the metric movement, the measure, is the direct expression of the movement of perception” (Levertov, Denise. “Some Notes on Organic Form.” Poetry Foundation, 1965).

Diction

The specific vocabulary the poem uses—or its diction—conveys critical themes, motifs, and symbols. Levertov uses elusive terms to advance the motif of secrecy and obfuscated knowledge. For example, few details are given about the poem’s four characters: The speaker, the “[t]wo girls” (Line 1) and the “third person” (Line 9) remain unnamed; the age and gender of the speaker and the third person are never revealed. Most importantly, the poem holding the alleged secret is never identified, nor is the secret itself ever shared. The omission of specifics keeps the poem elusive and enigmatic.

At the same time, the register of the poem’s diction belies its purposeful obfuscation. The speaker uses simple, mostly one-syllable words; the poem is sprinkled with conversation asides such as “[n]o doubt” (Line 13) and “most of all” (Line 36). The conversational words demystify the speaker, who is not a superior poet declaiming at an audience, but interacting with the reader as equals. The speaker doesn’t have a monopoly over the secret, and the secret appears in a multitude of places. The colloquial diction highlights the omnipresence of the secret, which could be discovered by the reader as well.

Narrative Voice

“The Secret” functions as a story, with the speaker as its narrator. The main characters are the two girls, and the plot centers on the secret they discover, lose, and then rediscover in various poems and life experiences. The narrative voice keeps the poem playful and accessible. The narrator doesn’t use lofty language or identify the secret, instead using colloquial register to empower readers, encouraging them to mimic the girls and find the secret “in other / lines” (Lines 27-28) and “happenings” (Line 30).

The narrator shares their knowledge of the girls’ discovery not as a foregone conclusion but as though the thoughts are still being formed. For example, as the speaker admits to loving the girls for their daring exploration and the optimism that enabled them to find the secret, the lines reproduce a moment of self-talk:

assuming there is

such a secret, yes,

for that

most of all (Lines 33-36).

It is as if the speaker is catching themselves in a moment of realization—“yes” (Line 34), indeed, the girls’ willingness to believe is what makes them most admirable, the narrator confirms, as much to the reader as to themselves. This unimposing voice invites the reader to think about the girls’ secret alongside the speaker.