Down in My Heart

by William Stafford

Book Overview

"Down in My Heart is not only Stafford's first book, but in some ways it is his most important book because it lays out the radical social & moral code by which he lived his life as a pacifist, a code that underlies every poem he ever wrote."-The Bloomsbury Review

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0930769007
• ISBN13: 9780930769000
• Release Date: January 1985
• Publisher: Bench Press (OR)
• Length: 94 Pages
• Weight: 0.30 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Presaging the 1960s.

Stafford's poetry is beautiful and concise. His pacifism, appreciation of nature, and interest in eastern mysticism presage many of the major movements of the late fifties through early seventies. Yet Stafford's voice lacks the selfishness which would sometimes blight these later movements. Instead of struggling egoistically against an unjust war, Stafford represents an innocent-minded struggle against war of any kind, but grounded in the work-ethic of depression era America. (Aside: Kim Stafford's introduction to her father's work is every bit as interesting as the main text.)

Thoughtful people's poets

Oregon's poet laureate William Stafford unassumingly answered the phone, "Bill" and wrote lovingly wrote of mother, father, a moment in his life. Simple, but not simplistic, his poetry draws deep from the well of the everyday. This collection includes the poem Stafford wrote the day he died. How typical of this extraordinary, ordinary man to keep on giving to the end!