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The Painted Bed

by Donald Hall

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First published: 2002
Pages: 65

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About this book

Donald Hall's anthology "The Painted Bed" is a moving collection of poetry. Hall, who spent more than 20 years married to fellow poet Jane Kenyon, wrote this book to address the sadness and rage he felt in the two to three years that followed her passing. The beds in which they were married, Hall's sick bed from which she nursed Kenyon, and her deathbed are all mentioned in the title.

In addition to meditating on life and acceptance in old age, the poems tackle themes of love, loss, and sorrow, portraying the raw emotions of grief along the way. The fourth section of the book, "Ardor," sees Hall moving toward accepting a new existence as eros reappears.

About the author

Donald Hall

Donald Hall built a long career as a poet, essayist, editor, and teacher, including service as United States poet laureate. The Painted Bed, published by Houghton Mifflin in 2002, gathers poems shaped by bereavement, memory, physical decline, and enduring attachment after the loss of Hall’s wife, the poet Jane Kenyon.

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