Part of Daniel Hoffman's Striking the Stones attempts a … fusion of irony, wisdom, and poignancy, but this aspect of Hoffman's work lacks … earthy, quirky intellectuality. His real presence as a poet comes through in a very different way. Some of his pieces seem at first tangential and ever so slight, yet they have a purity of movement quite their own. "A Marriage," for instance, discovers a finely serious speaking tone to get at the sense of what good married love means. It probes several images to suggest the precise relationship—rather metaphysically, but without making that much ado over the conceits—and closes on a note that is fastidiously accurate in its gallantry.

"This Day" projects the speaker's search for his imagination-in-hiding through an extended, exquisitely precise seashore metaphor. The physical and psychological evocativeness of this metaphor fully equals that of the literal scene presented in another poem...