In 1954, Hoffman published his first collection of poetry,
An Armada of Thirty Whales. This collection was chosen by
W. H. Auden as part of the
Yale Series of Younger Poets, and Auden commended it in his introduction as "providing a new direction for nature poetry in the post-Wordsworthian world." He has since published ten additional collections of poetry, a memoir, and seven volumes of criticism. Reviewing
Beyond Silence in
The New York Times Book Review in 2003, Eric McHenry found Hoffman a poet of remarkable consistency, "no less joyful or engaged at 80 than he was at 25." Hoffman taught at Columbia University,
Swarthmore College, and the
University of Pennsylvania. He retired from the latter as Felix Schelling Professor of English Emeritus, and its
Philomathean Society in 1996 published an anthology of poetry in honor of his efforts to bring contemporary poets to give readings in their halls. He was a chancellor emeritus of the
Academy of American Poets. From 1988 to 1999, he served as Poet in Residence at the
Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City, where he administered the
American Poets' Corner. ==Awards==