“We inhabited not the natural world but the landscape of leukemia.”
In A Carnival of Losses: Notes Nearing Ninety, a collection of essays by Donald Hall, the poet provides a compelling discourse on a strikingly diverse range of topics. All were written in his eighties, with the subject matter spanning his more-than-six-decade career as a poet, essayist and literary critic. Woven throughout his commentary are reflections on writing as a craft, the importance of family to his legacy and the loss of his wife – fellow poet, Jane Kenyon – to leukemia at the age of 47. This is a powerful collection and a worthwhile read, not only for lovers of poetry or the medical humanities, but also for anyone who has experienced the loss of someone who is closest to them. [Read his poem “The Things.”]
The volume is divided into four parts, the first a potpourri of glimpses into Hall’s literary career and development as a writer. He provides a portrait of humanity behind the struggles of writing as a profession, while also giving voice to the suffering of loss. Chapter names such as “In Praise of Paragraphs,” “Losing My Teeth,” “Sycophants and Sisters,” and “Pharmacies and Treasures” reflect his sense of humor, poetic temperament and love of language. He follows this with a chapter exploring the poetical works of several of his contemporaries, including the likes of Richard Wilbur and Seamus Heaney, as well as that of the literary luminaries with which he interacted, among them John Steinbeck, William Faulkner, T.S. Eliot and Ezra Pound.
“It was miserable that Jane should die so young, and it was redemptive that I could be with her every hour of every day. Last February I grieved again, this time that she would not sit over me as I died.” (p. 8)
The third chapter titled “Necropoetics” is dedicated to the loss of Hall’s wife, Jane Kenyon, whose own career produced four books of verse and a translation of Anna Akmatova. Initially published in The New Yorker as “The Poetry of Death,” this section may be the most impactful for readers, especially those with an interest in the medical humanities. When the two married in 1972, Hall feared that Kenyon would face decades as a widow, as he was 20 years her senior. Neither knew that leukemia would shorten her life and leave Hall instead as a widower after she passed in 1995. [Read Jane Kenyon’s poem “After an Illness, Walking the Dog.”]
From this point forward, Hall’s writing became progressively more focused on his reaction to her absence, providing voice and insight to the inner turmoil that many face after the death of a loved one. His vulnerability and anguish became the inspiration for several of his subsequent writings, including Without – his first works of poetry to be published after her death. This collection has been used widely for instruction by several medical schools and other programs dedicated to teaching the medical humanities.
“In the past, stories of dying and death resided outside medical discourse. Death was medical failure, and doctors concentrated on the not yet dead…Gradually we have equipped ourselves to think and talk about dread and terminal suffering.” (p. 137 )
Hall also writes on the tradition of death literature, displaying a familiarity with works like Atul Gawande’s Being Mortal and Paul Kalanithi’s When Breath Becomes Air, and analyzes how his own writing fits within that tradition. He also provides a touching reflection on the shared creative life that he and Kenyon led, including the ways in which they influenced each other’s careers. In reading this chapter, one cannot help compare their narrative with that of other writer duos, like Joan Didion grieving the loss of John Gregory Dunne in The Year of Magical Thinking or Margaret Atwood’s similar plight with Graeme Gibson in Dearly and Old Babes in the Wood. Hall’s prose throughout this chapter is particularly poignant, as it seems to be an extension of the grief he feels more than two decades later, and gives such an effective voice to the love he still felt.
The last chapter of Carnival of Losses provides further reflections on death and dying, particularly the challenges of continuing to thrive while nearing the age of ninety. The title essay, “Carnival of Losses,” is the penultimate in the collection and helps to provide a hopeful note for the future of Hall’s legacy. The book was in publication when he passed away in 2018 after a long and much-decorated career, productive of more than 50 volumes of poetry, prose and criticism. Hall served as the Poet Laureate of the United States from 2006-2007 and in 2010 received the National Medal of the Arts from President Barack Obama. His presence in the literary world will be sorely missed, but readers can cherish Carnival of Losses as his final publication and a lasting insight into the redemptive power of literature, both for the living and for those who are facing death. — Justin C. Cordova
Justin C. Cordova is a writer and physician in the National Capital Region. He has been previously published in a number of academic and literary journals, including Academic Medicine, Anesthesiology, and the Methodist DeBakey Cardiovascular Journal. Cordova, who has a passion for books and is particularly interested in the intersection of literature with medicine, endeavors to use his writing to establish a lasting connection to his patients, to encourage other physicians and to further explore the medical humanities. His time at home includes a wonderful wife, beautiful daughter,and loyal dog, so he thinks life could not get much better.