On a tour in northern England, Galway Kinnell attended a reading by Josephine Dickinson. She made such an impression on him with her brilliant poems and unusual background that he has offered a rare, special introduction to her U.S. debut book. At the age of six a serious illness left Dickinson deaf overnight. She nonetheless built a career as a musician, composer, and teacher, while also writing poetry filled with sound and rhythm. The forty-five poems in Silence Fell are set on a sheep farm in the northern mountains. She moved there thirteen years ago and fell in love with a local farmer, a man more than twice her age, who has recently died. The poems tell a unique love story through a modern shepherd's calendar. A New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice.