When Denise Levertov died on December 20, 1997, she left behind forty finished poems, which now form her last collection, This Great Unknowing. With thousands of cloth copies already sold, New Directions is pleased to now offer a paperback edition. Few poets have possessed so great a gift or so great a body of work--when she died at 74, she had been a published poet for more than half a century. The poems themselves shine with the artistry of a writer at the height of her powers.