excerpt from
Love-songs, at Once Tender and Informative —
An Unusual Combination in Verses of This Character
by Samuel Hoffenstein (1890-1947)
Maid of Gotham, ere we part,
Have a hospitable heart —
Since our own delights must end,
Introduce me to your friend.
—–
If you love me, as I love you,
We’ll both be friendly and untrue.
—–
Your little hands,
Your little feet,
Your little mouth —
Oh, God, how sweet!
Your little nose,
Your little ears,
Your eyes, that shed
Such little tears!
Your little voice,
So soft and kind;
Your little soul,
Your little mind!
—–
Had we but parted at the start,
I’d cut some figure in your heart;
And though the lands between were wide,
You’d often see me at your side.
But having loved and stayed, my dear,
I’m always everywhere but here,
And, still more paradoxical,
You always see me not at all.
from American Wits: An Anthology of Light Verse, compiled by John Hollander
* * *
Samuel (Sam) Hoffenstein was born in Lithuania in 1890, emigrating to the United States at the age of four with his family. After graduating from Easton College in Pennsylvania in 1911, he found work as a staff writer for the Wilkes-Barre Times Leader. By 1912, he was in New York City, working for The New York Sun, where he started as a reporter and worked his way up to drama critic. It was around this time that Sam Hoffenstein wrote and published his rather gloomy first volume of poetry, Life Sings a Song (1916) and left The Sun to work as a press agent in the city. Life was followed by his first book of light verse, Poems in Praise of Practically Nothing in 1928, and Year In, You’re Out in 1930. The following year, Sam Hoffenstein moved to Los Angeles to work in the talkies.
In 1933, Hoffenstein helped Cole Porter and Kenneth S. Webb compose the musical score for The Gay Divorce, the stage musical (Fred Astaire’s last Broadway show) that became the film The Gay Divorcee, the first film to make the classic romantic pairing of Astaire and Ginger Rogers. Hoffenstein and Webb would win an Academy Award for the score.
Hoffenstein wrote scripts for a variety of movies, including Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde starring Fredric March (1931), for which Hoffenstein was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Writing, Adaptation, with Percy Heath; Love Me Tonight (1932); The Great Waltz (1938); The Wizard of Oz (1939), uncredited; Tales of Manhattan (1942); Phantom of the Opera with Claude Rains (1943); Laura with Gene Tierney and Dana Andrews (1944), for which Hoffenstien was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Writing, Screenplay, with Jay Dratler and Elizabeth Reinhardt; and Cluny Brown (1946).
Sam Hoffenstein died of a heart attack in Los Angeles in 1947 at the age of 57, three days after his final volume of verse, Pencil in the Air, was published. His Time Magazine obituary noted,
Died. Samuel Hoffenstein, 57, master writer of satiric light verse (Poems in Praise of Practically Nothing); of a heart attack; in Los Angeles. A wry-writing favorite of Manhattan’s wry-minded literary set in the late ’20s, Hoffenstein (who had written, I’d rather listen to a flute in Gotham, than a band in Butte) disappeared into Hollywood as a scenario writer, later explained: “In the movies we writers work our brains to the bone, and what do we get for it? A lousy fortune.”
I’ll end with some lines from some of his best known lines, from the 1928 Poems in Praise of Practically Nothing,
Poems of Passion Carefully Restrained So as to Offend Nobody: II
When you’re away, I’m restless, lonely,
Wretched, bored, dejected; only
Here’s the rub, my darling dear,
I feel the same when you are here.
Happy Valentine’s Day!
Filed under: Books, Poetry, Poetry Friday, Valentine's Day | 1 Comment »
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