By ERIN ALLEN
The June 14 announcement of Donald Hall as the 14th Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry dominated recent news articles featuring the Library of Congress. On making the appointment, Librarian of Congress James H. Billington referred to Hall as "one of America's most distinctive and respected literary figures."
The Washington Post, The New York Times, Associated Press, The Boston Globe and Roll Call prominently featured stories about the 77-year-old poet from New Hampshire shortly after the announcement.
Several articles quoted Dana Gioia, chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), who characterized Hall's selection as "long-overdue recognition for one of America's greatest and most-admired men of letters."
Roll Call reporter Bree Hocking alluded to the frequent comparison between Hall and the New England poet Robert Frost, who also resided in New Hampshire.
For his part, Hall concedes a similarity in their subject matter but is quick to add, "I don't sound like him." Hall, who met Frost at the age of 16 during a fiercely competitive game of softball at the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference in Vermont, does not admit to being a fan of the man or his work.
The New York Times piece by Dinitia Smith mentioned Hall's role as a champion of the arts, including his role as a former member of the advisory council of the NEA during the administration of George H.W. Bush. She noted that Hall "has been a harsh critic of the religious right's influence on government arts policy." According to Smith, "he referred to those interfering with arts grants as 'bullies and art bashers.'" Smith spoke to former Poet Laureate Robert Pinsky on Hall's appointment: "There is something nicely symbolic, and maybe surprising, that they have selected someone who has taken a stand for freedom," he said.
Hall told The New York Times that he does not see the poet laureateship as a bully pulpit but does understand that it is a pulpit of sorts. "If I see First Amendment violations, I will speak up."
According to Bob Thompson of The Washington Post, "Hall intends to make his position more than an honorary one."
"It's an opportunity to plug poetry," Hall said. "Other laureates have done a good job, and I'm trying to figure out what I should do."
A poetry program on satellite radio or cable television were just a few initiatives Hall is entertaining, although he confessed to wishful thinking, as both would take a considerable amount of money. "But I can ask," he quipped.
Hall's 141-year-old New Hampshire farmhouse, Eagle Farm Pond, was the subject of articles in the Los Angeles Times, The New York Times and The Boston Globe. "Eagle Pond has long played a central role in Hall's work, which is nakedly autobiographical," said Los Angeles Times reporter Susan Salter Reynolds.
"I write a great deal about New Hampshire," said Hall. "People come here for the land and for the remnants of the rural culture. I came for the silence."
"I write about love, death and New Hampshire," Hall told a reporter. This is the same response he gave to Vice President Richard Cheney, who once inquired about his subject matter. Hall has written a lot on these subjects since the death of his wife, poet Jane Kenyon, more than a decade ago.
In the "House and Home" section of The New York Times, reporter Jen Banbury wrote, "Hall has a deep and intense connection to this house, a large, worn-in place with the low ceilings and small rooms of the many pre-electricity New England homes. If a place can act as a poet's muse, this house surely does that for Donald Hall."
Baseball is also the new poet laureate's muse, a fact noted in a July 17 Sports Illustrated article by Charles Hirshberg. A loyal Red Sox fan, Hall describes baseball as his "walk in the park," an escape from his sometimes lonely and stressful job of writing. "There's much about baseball that I find poetical," he said.
As he explained to the reporter, his poem titled "Baseball" is "a work of nine parts—or innings—each containing nine stanzas, each stanza containing nine lines and each line containing nine syllables." It is included in a new anthology of Hall's work called "White Apples and the Taste of Stone."
Both Pauline Jelinek and Beverely Wang of the Associated Press spoke to Hall on the eve of the announcement. "I feel grateful and excited and a bit frantic," he said, in the midst of all the media attention.
The Boston Globe interviewed Hall days after the announcement of his appointment, amid the flurry of press interviews and photo sessions. According to Boston Globe reporter David Mehegan, the poet had to take the phone off the hook during their interview.
Although a little surprised by all the attention, Hall said he was not surprised by the public interest in poetry.
"It's a lot more present than people give it credit for. … When I was in my 20s, there were very few poetry readings. Now there are more readings every year, and festivals, where you read poems under a tent to thousands of people. …"
Hall, who begins his official duties in the fall, will be featured at the Library's National Book Festival on Sept. 30 and will read from his work on Oct. 3 to open the Library's annual poetry and literature season.
Erin Allen is a writer-editor in the Public Affairs Office.