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Their Ancient Glittering Eyes: Remembering Poets and More Poets
A poet recalls his personal encounters with some famous literary figures
343 pages, Paperback
First published August 18, 1992
About the author
Donald Hall
190 books205 followersDonald Hall was considered one of the major American poets of his generation.
His poetry explores the longing for a more bucolic past and reflects the poet’s abiding reverence for nature. Although Hall gained early success with his first collection, Exiles and Marriages (1955), his later poetry is generally regarded as the best of his career. Often compared favorably with such writers as James Dickey, Robert Bly, and James Wright, Hall used simple, direct language to evoke surrealistic imagery. In addition to his poetry, Hall built a respected body of prose that includes essays, short fiction, plays, and children’s books. Hall, who lived on the New Hampshire farm he visited in summers as a boy, was also noted for the anthologies he has edited and is a popular teacher, speaker, and reader of his own poems.
Born in 1928, Hall grew up in Hamden, Connecticut. The Hall household was marked by a volatile father and a mother who was “steadier, maybe with more access to depths because there was less continual surface,” as Hall explained in an essay for Contemporary Authors Autobiography Series (CAAS). “To her I owe my fires, to my father my tears. I owe them both for their reading.” By age twelve, Hall had discovered the poet and short story writer Edgar Allan Poe: “I read Poe and my life changed,” he remarked in CAAS. Another strong influence in Hall’s early years was his maternal great-grandfather’s farm in New Hampshire, where he spent many summers. Decades later, he bought the same farm and settled there as a full-time writer and poet.
Hall attended Philips Exeter Academy and had his first poem published at age 16. He was a participant at the prestigious Bread Loaf Writer’s Conference, where he met Robert Frost, that same year. From Exeter, Hall went to Harvard University, attending class alongside Adrienne Rich, Robert Bly, Frank O’Hara, and John Ashbery; he also studied for a year with Archibald MacLeish. Hall earned a BLitt from Oxford University and won the Newdigate contest for his poem “Exile,” one of the few Americans ever to win the prize. Returning to the United States, Hall spent a year at Stanford, studying under the poet-critic Yvor Winters, before returning to Harvard to join the prestigious Society of Fellows. It was there that Hall assembled Exiles and Marriages, a tightly-structured collection crafted in rigid rhyme and meter. In 1953, Hall also became the poetry editor of the Paris Review, a position he held until 1961. In 1957 he took a position as assistant professor of English at the University of Michigan, where he remained until 1975. While at Michigan, Hall met the young Jane Kenyon. They later married and, when Hall’s grandmother, who owned Eagle Pond Farm, passed away, bought the farm, left teaching, and moved there together. The collections Kicking the Leaves (1978) and The Happy Man (1986) reflect Hall’s happiness at his return to the family farm, a place rich with memories and links to his past. Many of the poems explore and celebrate the continuity between generations. The Happy Man won the Lenore Marshall/Nation Prize. Hall’s next book, The One Day (1988), won the National Book Critics Circle Award. A long poem that meditates on the on-set of old age, The One Day, like much of Hall’s early work, takes shape under formal pressure: composed of 110 stanzas, split over three sections, its final sections are written in blank verse. The critic Frederick Pollack praised the book as possibly “the last masterpiece of American Modernism. Any poet who seeks to surpass this genre should study it; any reader who has lost interest in contemporary poetry should read it.” Old and New Poems (1990) contains several traditional poems from earlier collections, as well as more innovative verses not previously published. “Baseball,” included in The Museum of Clear Ideas (1993), is the poet’s ode to the great American pastime and is structured around t
His poetry explores the longing for a more bucolic past and reflects the poet’s abiding reverence for nature. Although Hall gained early success with his first collection, Exiles and Marriages (1955), his later poetry is generally regarded as the best of his career. Often compared favorably with such writers as James Dickey, Robert Bly, and James Wright, Hall used simple, direct language to evoke surrealistic imagery. In addition to his poetry, Hall built a respected body of prose that includes essays, short fiction, plays, and children’s books. Hall, who lived on the New Hampshire farm he visited in summers as a boy, was also noted for the anthologies he has edited and is a popular teacher, speaker, and reader of his own poems.
Born in 1928, Hall grew up in Hamden, Connecticut. The Hall household was marked by a volatile father and a mother who was “steadier, maybe with more access to depths because there was less continual surface,” as Hall explained in an essay for Contemporary Authors Autobiography Series (CAAS). “To her I owe my fires, to my father my tears. I owe them both for their reading.” By age twelve, Hall had discovered the poet and short story writer Edgar Allan Poe: “I read Poe and my life changed,” he remarked in CAAS. Another strong influence in Hall’s early years was his maternal great-grandfather’s farm in New Hampshire, where he spent many summers. Decades later, he bought the same farm and settled there as a full-time writer and poet.
Hall attended Philips Exeter Academy and had his first poem published at age 16. He was a participant at the prestigious Bread Loaf Writer’s Conference, where he met Robert Frost, that same year. From Exeter, Hall went to Harvard University, attending class alongside Adrienne Rich, Robert Bly, Frank O’Hara, and John Ashbery; he also studied for a year with Archibald MacLeish. Hall earned a BLitt from Oxford University and won the Newdigate contest for his poem “Exile,” one of the few Americans ever to win the prize. Returning to the United States, Hall spent a year at Stanford, studying under the poet-critic Yvor Winters, before returning to Harvard to join the prestigious Society of Fellows. It was there that Hall assembled Exiles and Marriages, a tightly-structured collection crafted in rigid rhyme and meter. In 1953, Hall also became the poetry editor of the Paris Review, a position he held until 1961. In 1957 he took a position as assistant professor of English at the University of Michigan, where he remained until 1975. While at Michigan, Hall met the young Jane Kenyon. They later married and, when Hall’s grandmother, who owned Eagle Pond Farm, passed away, bought the farm, left teaching, and moved there together. The collections Kicking the Leaves (1978) and The Happy Man (1986) reflect Hall’s happiness at his return to the family farm, a place rich with memories and links to his past. Many of the poems explore and celebrate the continuity between generations. The Happy Man won the Lenore Marshall/Nation Prize. Hall’s next book, The One Day (1988), won the National Book Critics Circle Award. A long poem that meditates on the on-set of old age, The One Day, like much of Hall’s early work, takes shape under formal pressure: composed of 110 stanzas, split over three sections, its final sections are written in blank verse. The critic Frederick Pollack praised the book as possibly “the last masterpiece of American Modernism. Any poet who seeks to surpass this genre should study it; any reader who has lost interest in contemporary poetry should read it.” Old and New Poems (1990) contains several traditional poems from earlier collections, as well as more innovative verses not previously published. “Baseball,” included in The Museum of Clear Ideas (1993), is the poet’s ode to the great American pastime and is structured around t
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
June 29, 2022
I have read this book twice, now, and it won't be my last. Any fan of poetry and/or literary history will enjoy Hall's interviews and conversations and stories about some of America's greatest poets (Frost, Thomas, Eliot, Moore, MacLeish, Winters, and Pound). More than just mini-biographies, Hall paints portraits that are touching and insightful, and left me craving for more. This is a book that will not collect dust on my shelf.
February 2, 2022
I just saw a new book by Donald Hall in the bookstore, entitled "Old Poets". It seemed vaguely familiar. When I got home, I picked up this volume which I had, unread, on my shelves for years. I realized it was the same book that had just been reissued with a new title. It convinced me to finally read this 1992 book.
The new title is a better description of the book, but not as poetic a title.
Donald Hall was an accomplished American Poet. He served a term as the poet laureate of America. This is his memoir, analysis and discussion of the great poets from the generation before him. He spent a good amount of time with Robert Frost, Ezra Pound, Dylan Thomas, T.S. Eliot, Marrianne Moore, Yvor Winters and Archibald McLeish.
Each chapter includes great stories. He spends a day drinking in London and another in Wales with Dylan Thomas. He visits a failing and ill Ezra Pound in Italy. T. S. Eliot gives him advice about getting along at Oxford. He, his wife and young children visit an aging Robert Frost on his Vermont farm. Hall was not only a first-rate poet, he was also an award-winning memoirist and essayist. He knows how to tell a good story.
He tells these stories to a purpose. He explains that great poets often have serious flaws. Thomas was a drunk. Pound was a fascist antisemite; Frost was a phony. They often write some terrible poetry. McLeish was notorious for the amount of bad poetry he wrote. But those flaws or failings are not what counts.
Hall says, "We judge poets by their best work, or there are no good poets." His advice to young poets is "We should try to judge the work of others by the most that it is, and our own, if not by the least that it is, take the least into consideration."
He struggles with Ezra Pound. He considers him the great poet of the 20th century and, at the same time, a traitor who embraced Mussolini's Fascism and virulent antisemitism. He announces that,
"I never found it difficult to split the poem from poet. " That is not really true. He clearly finds it difficult. He wrote a whole book around that topic.
His conclusion is "If a poet is great, the poem is the poet at his or her greatest, and the man or woman in daily life will never equal the intelligence of sensitivity of the poem......Poets know that the poem is more important than they are--when they are writing the poem. Great poets may tell lies much of the time, but when they write their poems, they must not lie."
Hall is a beautiful writer who throws off lines that spark thought.
"Vanity is a work used for the light side of a heavy thing.".
He is a very young poet anxious for glory. After a weekend with one of the most famous poets in the world he realizes that, "Even if, when you grew up, you turned out to be Dylan Thomas, life could be neither simple, nor easy, nor happy."
There are some discussions of poems, but this is not a critical or analytical study of poetry. It is a rumination on memory, fame, and the connection between the poet and the poem.
The new title is a better description of the book, but not as poetic a title.
Donald Hall was an accomplished American Poet. He served a term as the poet laureate of America. This is his memoir, analysis and discussion of the great poets from the generation before him. He spent a good amount of time with Robert Frost, Ezra Pound, Dylan Thomas, T.S. Eliot, Marrianne Moore, Yvor Winters and Archibald McLeish.
Each chapter includes great stories. He spends a day drinking in London and another in Wales with Dylan Thomas. He visits a failing and ill Ezra Pound in Italy. T. S. Eliot gives him advice about getting along at Oxford. He, his wife and young children visit an aging Robert Frost on his Vermont farm. Hall was not only a first-rate poet, he was also an award-winning memoirist and essayist. He knows how to tell a good story.
He tells these stories to a purpose. He explains that great poets often have serious flaws. Thomas was a drunk. Pound was a fascist antisemite; Frost was a phony. They often write some terrible poetry. McLeish was notorious for the amount of bad poetry he wrote. But those flaws or failings are not what counts.
Hall says, "We judge poets by their best work, or there are no good poets." His advice to young poets is "We should try to judge the work of others by the most that it is, and our own, if not by the least that it is, take the least into consideration."
He struggles with Ezra Pound. He considers him the great poet of the 20th century and, at the same time, a traitor who embraced Mussolini's Fascism and virulent antisemitism. He announces that,
"I never found it difficult to split the poem from poet. " That is not really true. He clearly finds it difficult. He wrote a whole book around that topic.
His conclusion is "If a poet is great, the poem is the poet at his or her greatest, and the man or woman in daily life will never equal the intelligence of sensitivity of the poem......Poets know that the poem is more important than they are--when they are writing the poem. Great poets may tell lies much of the time, but when they write their poems, they must not lie."
Hall is a beautiful writer who throws off lines that spark thought.
"Vanity is a work used for the light side of a heavy thing.".
He is a very young poet anxious for glory. After a weekend with one of the most famous poets in the world he realizes that, "Even if, when you grew up, you turned out to be Dylan Thomas, life could be neither simple, nor easy, nor happy."
There are some discussions of poems, but this is not a critical or analytical study of poetry. It is a rumination on memory, fame, and the connection between the poet and the poem.
March 22, 2015
This book is my NO 1 all time favorite book. I have read it more than once, & I give it to the people I most care about on holidays. Donald Hall does an excellent job of drawing the reader in to his story line. His story line is an incredible look into the actual writing styles of famous poets.
December 4, 2023
Interesting information on many of the great twentieth century American poets, and some brilliant prose from a poet I gather I'll have to learn to pay attention to in his own right.
This book has made me feel the following about poets' personal lives: sadder about Frost and Pound, happier about Eliot and Moore, more disgusted with Dylan Thomas, and -- more informed -- about Yvor Winters and Archibald MacLeish.
It contains the following great lines:
Of Frost (but applicable in many places): "Trust the poem, not the poet."
Of Moore: "But maybe when we praise the poet by finding her charming, our condescension allows us to pull the teeth from her poems."
Of Pound: "[T]he man who taught the course in modern poetry omitted Pound entirely, which was like omitting Saint Paul from the history of Christianity."
A brilliant book, potentially enlarging for you as a person; certainly tending towards a greater power in digesting and appreciating poetry.
This book has made me feel the following about poets' personal lives: sadder about Frost and Pound, happier about Eliot and Moore, more disgusted with Dylan Thomas, and -- more informed -- about Yvor Winters and Archibald MacLeish.
It contains the following great lines:
Of Frost (but applicable in many places): "Trust the poem, not the poet."
Of Moore: "But maybe when we praise the poet by finding her charming, our condescension allows us to pull the teeth from her poems."
Of Pound: "[T]he man who taught the course in modern poetry omitted Pound entirely, which was like omitting Saint Paul from the history of Christianity."
A brilliant book, potentially enlarging for you as a person; certainly tending towards a greater power in digesting and appreciating poetry.
February 8, 2019
A biographical look at several major poets offering some surprising insights into ways of working and, in the case of Marianne Moore, a rather accidental and happenstance falling into this vocation. The section on Moore made me most interested in her work but the essays/interviews involving Pound and Eliot were also fulsome and revealing. I particularly liked Hall's willingness to provide anecdotes that in no way flattered himself while giving many insights into how the poetic torch gets passed and how poets determine who is worthy of their time. Persistent chasing is sometimes required and he was up to the task, yielding some fascinating results.
September 24, 2020
Fascinating description of the personal lives of so many poets (TS Elliot, Robert Frost, Marianne Moore and others) during the first half of 20th century. Donald Hall describes luncheons, and other meetings and interviews, details of which would probably not be available anywhere else. It's a chance to enter and understand their worlds.
March 31, 2025
There are some wonderful observations and gems of expression in Donald Hall's Their Ancient Glittering Eyes. It is a reworking and expansion of his prior work, Remembering Poets. His excessive praise for the work of, and apology for, the hateful politics of Ezra Pound is jarring, even with his partial words of apology for his errors on the subject.
August 2, 2017
1) I'm a sucker for poetry and
2) Their Ancient Glittering Eyes was awarded to me for work I'd done to increase literacy and local authorships.
3) It was a darn good read (exegetically speaking).
2) Their Ancient Glittering Eyes was awarded to me for work I'd done to increase literacy and local authorships.
3) It was a darn good read (exegetically speaking).
January 21, 2008
Their Ancient Glittering Eyes: Remembering Poets and More Poets
U.S. Poet Laureate Donald Hall presents in this book fascinating essays about his encounters and friendships with great poets. Some of them, such as Archibald MacLeish and Yvor Winters, were his teachers. Others he occasioned to meet in college, when he would serve as host to visiting poets. I found the most interesting chapters to be those about poets he came to know principally through interviews he conducted for literary magazines. Among these poets are T.S. Eliot, Marianne Moore, and Ezra Pound.
The passages about Eliot, Moore, and Pound stand out because they reveal personalities I can admire aside from the accomplishments associated with them. Hall interviewed them in their later years, when they knew their greatest achievements were well behind them, and I was amazed to discover the warmth, humility, and humor projected from these beautiful souls, otherwise known as icons of American poetry.
Hall's account of Ezra Pound's interview, in particular, was moving and inspiring. Pound, perhaps the most controversial figure in American poetry--accused (and sadly, at his worst, "actual") traitor, fascist, and anti-Semite--is revealed in his old age as physically and morally fatigued, paranoid, and riddled with self doubt. Throughout the book, Hall reminds us to judge a poet only by his best work--not by his shortcomings, and an adaptation of the maxim applies well to Pound: we are asked not to forgive the terrible words and actions produced out of poor judgment, but to appreciate the champion supporter and promoter of some of the greatest literary figures we know and love (Eliot, Moore, Frost, Hemingway, among others). We should also appreciate his efforts to produce translations of Chinese, Greek, and Latin poetry. And in the end, for all his triumphs and errors, we see an old man in a jaunty yellow scarf, eating gelato with a wooden spoon, and I find the beauty of that image nearly overwhelming.
U.S. Poet Laureate Donald Hall presents in this book fascinating essays about his encounters and friendships with great poets. Some of them, such as Archibald MacLeish and Yvor Winters, were his teachers. Others he occasioned to meet in college, when he would serve as host to visiting poets. I found the most interesting chapters to be those about poets he came to know principally through interviews he conducted for literary magazines. Among these poets are T.S. Eliot, Marianne Moore, and Ezra Pound.
The passages about Eliot, Moore, and Pound stand out because they reveal personalities I can admire aside from the accomplishments associated with them. Hall interviewed them in their later years, when they knew their greatest achievements were well behind them, and I was amazed to discover the warmth, humility, and humor projected from these beautiful souls, otherwise known as icons of American poetry.
Hall's account of Ezra Pound's interview, in particular, was moving and inspiring. Pound, perhaps the most controversial figure in American poetry--accused (and sadly, at his worst, "actual") traitor, fascist, and anti-Semite--is revealed in his old age as physically and morally fatigued, paranoid, and riddled with self doubt. Throughout the book, Hall reminds us to judge a poet only by his best work--not by his shortcomings, and an adaptation of the maxim applies well to Pound: we are asked not to forgive the terrible words and actions produced out of poor judgment, but to appreciate the champion supporter and promoter of some of the greatest literary figures we know and love (Eliot, Moore, Frost, Hemingway, among others). We should also appreciate his efforts to produce translations of Chinese, Greek, and Latin poetry. And in the end, for all his triumphs and errors, we see an old man in a jaunty yellow scarf, eating gelato with a wooden spoon, and I find the beauty of that image nearly overwhelming.
December 19, 2008
*Their Ancient Glittering Eyes* derives its title from a Yeats poem, which seems apt, as the chapters of this book are the journey of one poet through the interactions he had with other poets. Hall's chapters, which read like self-contained essays, take us through a literary landscape of the 20th Century, with its principle characters being poets such as Frost, TS Eliot, Marianne Moore, Dylan Thomas, etc. In many ways, it reads like an account of a poetry apprenticeship, but Hall's accounts are wiser for retrospect. Between the gossip, the stories, the pronouncements of the greats are some truly inspiring and interesting comments on the making of a poem itself.
What is striking about the account is also the underlying humanity of each of these great poets. Hall presents them each as both glorious and flawed.
What is striking about the account is also the underlying humanity of each of these great poets. Hall presents them each as both glorious and flawed.
November 19, 2012
In Their Ancient Glittering Eyes former U.S. poet laureate Donald Hall recollects his meetings and interviews with some of the giants of modernist poetry, including T. S. Eliot, Robert Frost, Marianne Moore, and Ezra Pound. He reflects on his experience of their work and on their lives. This is not a biography, nor is it journalism. Donald Hall makes no attempt to give an objective or comprehensive account of these writers. He gives his own opinions and experiences and feelings and reactions to these people. Although the result can sometimes feel limited in perspective, it is often poignant. Hall clearly knows quite a bit about these writers and about the critical work around them, but the writing remains accessible and clear. If you are interested in modernist poetry (or Donald Hall), I would highly recommend this book.
February 3, 2015
Just marvelous. Poet Donald Hall recollects his personal encounters with some of the most seminal poets of the 20th century including: Robert Frost, Dylan Thomas, T.S. Eliot, Marianne Moore and Ezra Pound. One could possibly classify this book as literary gossip of the highest order. Hall is never nasty or petty though with his subjects, he loves poetry and the questions of influence and craft. This book wasn't written to drag down reputations but illuminate the personalities behind the poetry. We thus get a fuller picture of the humanity of these influential figures in the world of poetry and a better understanding of the place poetry used to hold in our society...when poets where still considered important public artists and intellectuals.
June 30, 2008
I'm not going to finish this. It's one of those books you can dip into when you want, and I've gotten through the major leaguers Hall writes about, and I'll dip later. This is high tone literary gossip, and highly opinionated critique. Pound, Eliot, and Frost all get the treatment, and the book is a fun read just for those three. The gossip is really interesting. Donald Hall, the author, was a US poet laureate.
September 18, 2009
A friend gave me this book and I love it.
April 28, 2011
Donald Hall met all of these Poets & I met Donald Hall & that has me dumbstruck- Thank you , Tristan.
March 30, 2017
The section on Dylan Thomas is worth the price of admission.
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews