4 Must-Read Donald Hall Poems

Donald Hall was an American poet who passed away in 2018. He is considered to be one of the most important American poets of his generation. Throughout his several collections, he explores themes like longing for the past and relationships. His work is noted for its surrealistic bent and direct language.

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Digging

‘Digging’ by Donald Hall is a thoughtful poem about transformation and nature. The poet leans on images from nature, like a seed growing into a flower, to describe one person’s transformation.

Donald Hall was a well-known American poet. He was born in 1928 and lived most of his life in New Hampshire. Hall wrote many poems, essays, and children's books. He loved nature and often wrote about it in his work. Hall won many awards for his writing and was known for his simple, clear language.

One midnight, after a day when lilies

lift themselves out of the ground while you watch them,

and you come into the house at dark

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Gold

A golden poem out of Hall’s heart, ‘Gold’ is about the precious past and conjugal memories of a speaker. It appears in the collection Old and New Poems published in 1990.

Pale gold of the walls, gold

of the centers of daisies, yellow roses

pressing from a clear bowl. All day

we lay on the bed, my hand

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My Son, My Executioner

Donald Hall’s poem ‘My Son, My Executioner’ centers on how a speaker looks at his child’s innocent face and wishes to die in order to get immortality. It taps on the spiritual bliss of parenting.

My son, my executioner,

I take you in my arms,

Quiet and small and just astir

And whom my body warms.

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White Apples

The poet of ‘White Apples’ Donald Hall uses plain language and a simple style to describe the effect of a loved one’s death in a speaker’s mind. The way he misses his father is described in this poem.

when my father had been dead a week

I woke

with his voice in my ear

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4 Must-Read Donald Hall Poems

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