Beyond Silence: Selected Shorter Poems, 1948-2003 - Paperback

by Daniel Hoffman (Author)

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"

Author Biography

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.