When Daniel Hoffman published a brief volume of selected poems in England, the Times Literary Supplement praised "his zestful verbal performance, supple use of rhyme and other sound effects" that "make the processes of his writing interesting." That same vitality and interest inform Hang-Gliding from Helicon, which presents more than forty new poems and a generous selection from six of Hoffman's previous books. Commenting on the most recent of these in the Southern Review, Monroe K. Spears wrote, "Hoffman's new volume seems to me to establish his claim to the title of major poet." In the New Republic, Josephine Jacobsen observed: "Three major strands knit into a strong texture: myth, history, and immediate experience . . . What he once wrote of Robert Graves is true of his own work: both combine 'A Dionysian compulsion to belief with an Apollonian clarity of presentation.'"
In the opening piece of this volume, entitled "The Poem," Hoffman writes: True to itself, by what craftWe publiceren alleen reviews die voldoen aan de voorwaarden voor reviews. Bekijk onze voorwaarden voor reviews.