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THE LUG OF DAYS TO COME
Daniel Haberman (1933-1991) may not have been a celebrity in 1984 when the above profile was written, but he was certainly listened to. As a poet, he commanded the admiration and respect of some of his most important colleagues, including Robert Penn Warren, Edward Dahlberg (whom he considered his mentor), J.V. Cunningham, Richard Wilbur, and Guy Davenport. The Lug of Days to Come, a retrospective collection of Haberman's finest poems and translations, with a foreword by Guy Davenport and etchings by Jan Stussy, is an important addition to the bookshelf of anyone interested in American poetry. Haberman's contribution to the world of poetry is also significant in a social and historic sense: in 1983 he created America's Poets' Corner in the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York. This institution celebrates America's literary heritage, and celebrates literature itself, and the art and joy of writing--and reading--poetry. Needless to say, the value of such an institution has grown since its inception, in this world and society where literacy and writing are on the decline. We must thank Daniel Haberman for every young poet who has found inspiration within the walls of America's Poets' Corner. But to appreciate (and enjoy) Daniel Haberman's legacy fully, we must return to his poetry itself. His poems and translations reveal a writer obsessed with solitude and relationship, which he expressed with a balance of humor and poignancy. He wrote with reverence for formal structure (meter, rhyme, and near-rhyme), yet he stretched the limits of form. He was also inventive with language, using at every opportunity a surprising yet perfectly chosen word. As Richard Wilbur says, "Daniel Haberman's poems issue from a deep subjectivity which cannot utter itself in any standard idiom; they are full of strange locutions and of words curiously employed.In his best work the result can be a dark simplicity, a mysterious lyricism reminscent of Blake." "All that we can ask of any poet," wrote Guy Davenport in the foreword to this book, "is that he be master of his craft (all else is grace and genius); of Haberman's mastery there is no doubt. Grace abounds, and in a phrase here, a perfect rhythm there, in a delightful surprising pattern of words, there is the flash of genius."
About the Poet: Daniel Haberman was born in New York
City in 1933. He attended the Walden School, Carnegie-Mellon
University, and the graduate school of New York University. He
was educated in the secondhand book shops of Manhattan, and by
two years of study with Edward Dahlberg. In 1983 he was asked
to create America's Poets' Corner at the Cathedral of St. John
the Divine and became the Cathedral's first Poet in Residence.
In 1988, he and his wife, pianist Barbara Nissman, left New York
to live on a farm in the Allegheny Mountains of West Virginia;
but he continued to serve as an elector to the Poets' Corner
until his death in 1991.
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The Lug of Days to Come 136 pages, 6" x 9" clothbound, illustrated, $20.00 For ordering information, click here or phone (800) 662-8351 |