Social Life
Tony Hoagland’s poetry focuses primarily on con-
temporary issues in middle and upper class America,
especially in middle class suburbia. His personal
experience in this environment sometimes shows
up in poems as straightforward autobiography and
other times manifests itself in a generic “you” or
“they” address, suggesting a shared experience
within an entire generation. From politics and adul-
tery to religion and sex, Hoagland’s themes often
resound of daytime talk shows and evening news,
but the poems are also lined with an undercurrent
of self-reflection and disillusionment, anger and
hope. “Social Life,” which first appeared in the
spring 1999 issue of Ploughshares, aptly expresses
the poet’s take on contemporary society and be-
havior—here, in the form of party goers—but also
offers an unusual shift in setting for his work. Typ-
ically content to deal with the material, plastic
world of things and the people who use them,
Hoagland searches for something different in “So-
cial Life,” something found only in the serenity,
beauty, and wonder of the natural world.Author Biography
Tony Hoagland was born Anthony Dey Hoagland
on November 19, 1953, in Fort Bragg, North Car-
olina. Very little biographical information as of
2003 was available on Hoagland, yet scholars of his
work point to various known autobiographical po-Tony Hoagland
1999
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