The One Day

First edition
Author	Donald Hall
Original title	The One Day
Published	Mariner Books
Media type	Print
Pages	80
Awards	National Book Critics Circle Award in Poetry (1988)
ISBN	0899198163

The One Day by Donald Hall is a book-length poem. It was included on critic Harold Bloom's list of works constituting the Western Canon. ^[1]

Synopsis

The book is composed of three parts, "Shrubs Burnt Away," "Four Classic Texts" and "To Build a House", employing a 10-line stanza with variable line length in an experimental form. It centers on mid-life anxiety, using phrases like "a preparation of death." It is not completely dark and despairing, as it focuses on how to make a life worth living, instructing readers to: "Work, love, build a house, and die. But build a house."

Awards and Acclaim

• Winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award in Poetry (1988)
• "Its passion and urgency are rare and remarkable." - The Washington Post
• "...the concept of middle age is explored with fresh insight and expressed in brilliant turns of phrase." - Publishers Weekly .

References

1. Bloom, Harold (1994). The Western Canon: The Books and School of the Ages (1st ed.). New York, NY: Harcourt Brace. pp. Appendix 4. ISBN   978-0-15-195747-7.

External links

• The One Day - Amazon
• Donald Hall - Biography Poetry Foundation
• Academy of American Poets