Post by mariata112 on May 30, 2013 20:27:13 GMT -5
Donald Hall was always a poet at heart but not until he reconnected with his roots did he achieve recognition as a great American poet. Hall grew up in Hamden, Connecticut where he excelled at Phillips Exeter Academy. However, it was not attending this prestigious school that cultivated his love for poetry. Instead, his desire to write grew out of a trivial matter, his love for horror movies. It was through his love of horror movies that Hall was introduced to the poetry of Edgar Allen Poe. Hall states, “I read Poe and my life changed”. Following his first encounter with a Poe poem, Hall began to mimic Poe’s style and began to write poetry. Hall’s newfound love for literature and writing has had a lasting impression on his life. Hall went on to teach at the University of Michigan where he met his future wife, poet Jane Kenyon.
The turning point in Hall’s career came when he and Jane moved back to Eagle Pond Farm in New Hampshire, the farm where Hall spent his boyhood summers and began writing poetry. Hall’s poetry took on a new form and was his happiest poetry. The poetry focused primarily on renewal of memories, nature and the unimportance of time. Living on this farm reconnected him with his past and brought back memories of “coming to the farm in March in sugaring time, as a small boy”, his father “raked beside me (Hall) in the back yard, and tumbled in the leaves with me, laughing, my hair full of leaves”. Hall’s reconnection with his past allowed him to live in the moment. It was this move that helped Hall to realize, “I’m alive in the present moment, in what I do now, and in where I’m doing it. This present includes layers of the past—there’s so much past here at Eagle Pond”. Living in the present, with connections to the past and not daydreaming about the future is essential to Hall’s writing. Life at Eagle Pond Farm “which is my home” is what helped Hall “start to turn the tide again."
The influences on Hall’s poetry took a dramatic turn with the death of Jane in 1995 from leukemia. After Jane’s death, Hall wrote the collection Without; these poems were Hall’s way of grieving with his loss. The poems written after her death show his devastation in the “pain vomit neuropathy morphine nightmare”. The pain that Hall felt from Jane’s passing is felt in the Without poems but these poems also express the unwavering love that he had for Jane. His love for his wife is evident in lines like, “Overcome with dread, they wept and affirmed their love for each other, witlessly, over and over again”.
As time passed Hall’s poetry has seemed to take on another style. Now he uses his poetry to teach his readers about love, the passing of time and old age. No line proves Hall’s intentions of teaching better than, “To grow old is to lose everything” and “affirm that it is fitting and delicious to lose everything”. Hall wants people to understand that old age is not to be dreaded but embraced because living life to the fullest allows the loss to be “delicious”.
Hall is a poet, who has conquered time with his ability to connect the past, present and future, but it is his ability to be open and honest about the happiness and struggles of life that allows him to be called a great American poet.
It is my pleasure to welcome Donald Hall as our 2013 Visiting Poet.
Word Count: 595
The turning point in Hall’s career came when he and Jane moved back to Eagle Pond Farm in New Hampshire, the farm where Hall spent his boyhood summers and began writing poetry. Hall’s poetry took on a new form and was his happiest poetry. The poetry focused primarily on renewal of memories, nature and the unimportance of time. Living on this farm reconnected him with his past and brought back memories of “coming to the farm in March in sugaring time, as a small boy”, his father “raked beside me (Hall) in the back yard, and tumbled in the leaves with me, laughing, my hair full of leaves”. Hall’s reconnection with his past allowed him to live in the moment. It was this move that helped Hall to realize, “I’m alive in the present moment, in what I do now, and in where I’m doing it. This present includes layers of the past—there’s so much past here at Eagle Pond”. Living in the present, with connections to the past and not daydreaming about the future is essential to Hall’s writing. Life at Eagle Pond Farm “which is my home” is what helped Hall “start to turn the tide again."
The influences on Hall’s poetry took a dramatic turn with the death of Jane in 1995 from leukemia. After Jane’s death, Hall wrote the collection Without; these poems were Hall’s way of grieving with his loss. The poems written after her death show his devastation in the “pain vomit neuropathy morphine nightmare”. The pain that Hall felt from Jane’s passing is felt in the Without poems but these poems also express the unwavering love that he had for Jane. His love for his wife is evident in lines like, “Overcome with dread, they wept and affirmed their love for each other, witlessly, over and over again”.
As time passed Hall’s poetry has seemed to take on another style. Now he uses his poetry to teach his readers about love, the passing of time and old age. No line proves Hall’s intentions of teaching better than, “To grow old is to lose everything” and “affirm that it is fitting and delicious to lose everything”. Hall wants people to understand that old age is not to be dreaded but embraced because living life to the fullest allows the loss to be “delicious”.
Hall is a poet, who has conquered time with his ability to connect the past, present and future, but it is his ability to be open and honest about the happiness and struggles of life that allows him to be called a great American poet.
It is my pleasure to welcome Donald Hall as our 2013 Visiting Poet.
Word Count: 595