Philip Levine wrote “They Feed They Lion” in 1968 as a response to the Detroit Riots of 1967, which occurred during the Vietnam War. Devastated by what he saw when he returned to his hometown, Levine said, as reported by PBS, that “They Feed They Lion” was “the most potent expression of rage I have written” (See: Further Readings & Resources). Levine documented that he felt “rage at my government for the two racial wars we were fighting, one in the heart of our cities against our urban poor, the other in Asia,” and was disturbed by his realization that he was “middle-aged, middle-class, and as one writer of the time would have put it ‘part of the problem.’”

Taking the title from something a Black coworker once noticed, Levine wrote the poem shortly after his visit to Detroit. The poem was first collected into a small letterpress book, 5 Detroits (1970), and later included in the 1972 collection, They Feed They Lion, as well as subsequent collections. It is considered among Levine’s most important poems as it captures a significant moment in history from a Detroit native’s point of view.

In a 1972 review for the Western Humanities Review, Richard Schramm said the poem “has to be one of the most remarkable poems of recent times, a tour de force” (See: Further Reading & Resources). Levine, who wrote more often in a narrative way, noted the style of this poem was unusual for him. Unlike much of his other work, he used the fast-paced rhythm of extensive cataloging to create feelings of overwhelm. The poem's diction borrows from African American vernacular to capture the emotions of a disenfranchised population.

“They Feed They Lion” has been widely anthologized.

Poet Biography

Philip Levine and his twin were born on January 10, 1928, in Detroit, Michigan. His parents were Harry Levine and Esther Pryszkulnik Levine—working-class Jewish people. Besides his twin Edward, Levine had one older brother, Eli. Levine faced prejudice for his ethnicity and immigrant status and found comfort in libraries. He began working at 14 in the auto factories of Detroit, reading and writing poetry in his spare time. Graduating high school in 1946, he enrolled at Wayne State University as an English major. In 1950, after receiving his undergraduate degree, he went back to work in the automotive industry.

Levine and Patty Kanterman married in 1951, but their union did not last; they divorced in 1953. Single, Levine felt he could pursue his dream of leaving Detroit. He saved to attend the University of Iowa but after missing the deadline for a scholarship, he could not afford classes. He sat in on classes with renowned American poets Robert Lowell and John Berryman but eventually had to return to Detroit. He married actress Frances J. Artley in 1954. The couple had three sons and remained married until Levine’s death.

Levine earned a MA in English from Wayne State University in 1954 and returned to the University of Iowa to teach technical writing. In 1957, he received an MFA from University of Iowa and was the recipient of a fellowship in poetry from Stanford, California. His family moved to California in 1958 where he joined the California State University-Fresno faculty. Throughout his career, he served as a visiting professor at many universities: Brown, University of California-Berkeley, NYU, Princeton, Tufts, and Vanderbilt.

Levine’s first poetry books were On the Edge (1963) and Not this Pig (1968). In the 1970s, Levine published seven poetry collections. His narrative and lyric poetry captures the lives of the working-class and Jewish Americans—particularly in Detroit. Levine received several awards during this period, including a Guggenheim Fellowship (1973), the Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize (1977), and the Harriet Monroe Memorial Prize (1978). He often worked as an editor, and wrote nonfiction, but his main focus was poetry.

Levine the National Book Critics Circle Award and the National Book Award for Ashes: Poems New and Old (1980). He was awarded the Levinson Prize (1981) and won the Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize (1987). In the 1980s, he published four more collections.

In the 1990s, he won the National Book Award for the second time with his collection What Work Is (1991). The same year, his New Selected Poems was released. Levine retired from teaching and began to split his time between Brooklyn, New York and his home in California. In 1994, he won the Pulitzer Prize for poetry with his collection The Simple Truth (1994), followed by the collection, Mercy (1999).

Breath was published in 2004 to acclaim and two years later, Levine was elected Chancellor to the Academy of American Poets. In 2009, his collection News of the World, was released. Shortly thereafter, in 2011, he was named poet laureate of the United States. In 2013, he was honored with the Wallace Stevens Prize for mastery. On February 14, 2015, Levine died in Fresno at the age of 87. His final collection, The Last Shift (2016), appeared posthumously.

Poem Text

Levine, Philip. “They Feed They Lion.” 1967. Poetry Foundation.

Summary

“They Feed They Lion” is a 33-line lyric poem about the anger and frustration of Detroit’s poor—particularly its African American population—in 1967. Although Levine directly spoke about the riots of 1967 as the impetus for the poem, he does not mention Detroit in the poem’s text. Instead, he uses figurative language to convey the industrial city and the problems of the people within it.

Levine begins the poem by giving imagery of the unrelenting demanding work of the working class—especially in the auto industry—as well listing the cheap food they could barely afford. The speaker depicts the bleak industrial landscape and touches on the history of the poor who migrated to Detroit for a better life but failed to find economic prosperity. The speaker conveys how the oppression of parents, particularly women, causes anger in their children. Poverty and failed dreams grind people down to “stumps” (Line 9), which makes it hard for them to hope for anything different. This also causes a physical restlessness, demonstrating how tension increases under duress.

Grass begins to engulf abandoned factories and cars. The poor subsist on a weak diet while working in meat-packing plants. This brings success to the owners, but little to the workers who begin to show “kinks of the fist” (Line 20). Eventually, they want to “Rise Up” (Line 22) instead of “Bow Down” (Line 22). The speaker contrasts this with middle-class white citizens, who are treated differently, their ”sins forgiven” (Line 29) and their “children inherit” (Line 29) freedom.

The “acids of rage” (Line 1) at the beginning of the poem increase throughout, until the possibility for hope is lost and the “oil-stained earth” (Line 32) must burn. Levine’s speaker ends the poem with the statement that now “they feed they Lion and he comes” (Line 33).