Beyond Silence: Selected Shorter Poems, 1948–2003 - Softcover

Hoffman, Daniel

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0807128619 ISBN 13: 9780807128619

Publisher: LSU Press, 2003

Synopsis

Accepting an award for poetry from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, Daniel Hoffman wrote, "Amid private sufferings and outrage at the brutalities of public life, it is gaiety that sustains us, and love, and the imagination's power to create from both deprivation and delight." This collection embodies those emotions and that imaginative power. Hoffman's verse has always exulted in the resources of language, as sensuous in sound as in response to the natural world. Beyond Silence, to be published on Hoffman's eightieth birthday, presents his shorter poems culled from eight previous collections, plus several new poems. Here, rather than in chronological order, they appear thematically and invite the reader to partake of the pleasures that characterize this distinguished poet's verse: "clarity, grace where desired, accuracy of visual detail and dialogue, and a formal mastery so deft that playfulness comes easily" (Fred Chappell).
Arriving at last. It has stumbled across the harshStones, the black marshes. True to itself, by what craftAnd strength it has, it has comeAs a sole survivor returns. From the steep pass.Carved on memory's staffThe legend is nearly decipherable.It has lived up to its vowsIf it enduresThe journey through the dark placesTo bear witness,Casting is messageIn a sort of singing.
-- "The Poem"

About this title

About the Author:

Alternate bioDaniel Hoffman served as Consultant in Poetry of the Library of Congress, the appointment now called Poet Laureate of the United States, in 1973-74, and as Poet in Residence of the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, l988-99, administering the American Poets' Corner. His eight books of shorter poems -- including the most recent, Darkening Water -- and his earlier selected poetry collection, Hang-Gliding from Helicon, are augmented by two book-length poems: Brotherly Love, a meditation of William Penn's treaty with the Indians and a finalist for both the National Book Award and the National Book Critics Circle Award; and his novel in verse, Middens of the Tribe. He is the author of eight books of nonfiction, including Poe Poe Poe Poe Poe Poe Poe -- also a finalist for the National Book Award -- and Zone of the Interior: A Memoir, 1942-1947. Now Felix E. Schelling Professor of English Emeritus, University of Pennsylvania, he lives with his wife in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania, and Harborside, Maine.

Daniel Hoffman (1923--2013) published fourteen books of poetry including Hang-Gliding from Helicon, The Whole Nine Yards, and Next to Last Words. His early book-length poem Brotherly Love became a finalist for the National Book Award, and in 1973--74 he served as Consultant in Poetry of the Library of Congress, the appointment now called Poet Laureate of the United States.

From Booklist:

Hoffman presents his favorites among his short poems thematically in eight sections but doesn't say what any section's theme is. He isn't being coy, just granting that readers are smart enough to figure themes out themselves. The first section weighs the twentieth century, especially in the relatively long, virtuosically sustained "The City of Satisfaction," a parable a la Hawthorne's "The Celestial Railroad" about striving for an ideologically promised perfect society. The second section is full of myths and memories of love; the third, of sins, errors, and paths not taken; the fourth, of journeys of personal identity (including one whose Whitman-like aspirations are immediately quashed: "O Personages who move / Among me, why don't you / Guys come on call?"). The fifth salutes and queries the satisfactions of home, community, and the natural world, not forgetting neighbors and memorable characters. The sixth responds to those old, philosophical puzzlers: Why are we here? and Where are we going? In the seventh, Hoffman relishes beloved poets and jazz musicians ("High Society" ranks with Hayden Carruth's best jazz poems). The poems in the last section constitute a coda of gratitude for life. Erudite and neighborly, formally adroit even in the occasional free-verse poem, Hoffman is an indispensable American poet. Ray Olson
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

About this edition

• Publisher: LSU Press
• Publication date: 2003
• ISBN 10: 0807128619
• ISBN 13: 9780807128619
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 240