The single-neutron properties of the N = 83 nucleus 137 Xe have been studied using the 136 Xe(d,p) reaction in inverse kinematics at a beam energy of 10 MeV/u. The helical-orbit spectrometer, HE-LIOS, at Argonne National Laboratory was used to analyze the outgoing protons, achieving an excitation-energy resolution of <100 keV. Extraction of absolute cross sections, angular distributions, and spectroscopic factors has led to a more complete understanding of the single-neutron strength in 137 Xe. In particular, the centroids of the νh 9/2 and νi 13/2 strengths appear to evolve through the N = 83 isotones in a manner consistent with the action of the tensor force.