My memory of Hall's Essays After Eighty is its calm bucolic tone, with essays not about aging per se but about living a tranquil solitary live. I was comforted by Hall's routine, especially his continued writing and his idyllic New Hampshire home. He appreciates his life rather than appearing rueful.
I approached A Carnival of Losses as something of a sequel to Essays After Eighty. However, most of the pieces in this book are reminiscences rather than reflections. For example, the middle section has short anecdotes about poets Hall has known ("As I enter the last phase [of my life], I change my subject from poetry to poets"). A Carnival of Losses would be better than Essays After Eighty for folks more interested in Hall as a poet, but it was a bit disappointing to this reader more interested in Hall as an eloquent chronicler of later life.
The final two pieces are appropriately autumnal, covering events up to the last month of his life. Even these last days brought him joy, especially when his granddaughter told him she and her husband would move into Eagle Pond Farm after his passing.
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