How to Read a Poem
And Fall in Love with Poetry
Published on 22. March 1999
288 pages
978-0-547-54372-7 (ISBN)
Description
From the National Book Critics Circle Award-winning poet and critic: "A lovely book, full of joy and wisdom." -
The Baltimore Sun
How to Read a Poem is an unprecedented exploration of poetry, feeling, and human nature. In language at once acute and emotional, Edward Hirsch describes why poetry matters and how we can open up our imaginations so that its message can make a difference. In a marvelous reading of verse from around the world, including work by Pablo Neruda, Elizabeth Bishop, Wallace Stevens, and Sylvia Plath, among many others, Hirsch discovers the true meaning of their words and ideas and brings their sublime message home into our hearts.
"Hirsch has gathered an eclectic group of poems from many times and places, with selections as varied as postwar Polish poetry, works by Keats and Christopher Smart, and lyrics from African American work songs... Hirsch suggests helpful strategies for understanding and appreciating each poem. The book is scholarly but very readable and incorporates interesting anecdotes from the lives of the poets." - Library Journal
"The answer Hirsch gives to the question of how to read a poem is: Ecstatically." - Boston Book Review
"Hirsch's magnificent text is supported by an extensive glossary and superb international reading list." - Booklist
"If you are pretty sure you don't like poetry, this is the book that's bound to change your mind." -Charles Simic, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The World Doesn't End
How to Read a Poem is an unprecedented exploration of poetry, feeling, and human nature. In language at once acute and emotional, Edward Hirsch describes why poetry matters and how we can open up our imaginations so that its message can make a difference. In a marvelous reading of verse from around the world, including work by Pablo Neruda, Elizabeth Bishop, Wallace Stevens, and Sylvia Plath, among many others, Hirsch discovers the true meaning of their words and ideas and brings their sublime message home into our hearts.
"Hirsch has gathered an eclectic group of poems from many times and places, with selections as varied as postwar Polish poetry, works by Keats and Christopher Smart, and lyrics from African American work songs... Hirsch suggests helpful strategies for understanding and appreciating each poem. The book is scholarly but very readable and incorporates interesting anecdotes from the lives of the poets." - Library Journal
"The answer Hirsch gives to the question of how to read a poem is: Ecstatically." - Boston Book Review
"Hirsch's magnificent text is supported by an extensive glossary and superb international reading list." - Booklist
"If you are pretty sure you don't like poetry, this is the book that's bound to change your mind." -Charles Simic, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The World Doesn't End
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04/2000
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Person
EDWARD HIRSCH is a celebrated poet and peerless advocate for poetry. A MacArthur fellow, he has published ten books of poems and six books of prose. He has received numerous awards and fellowships, including the National Book Critics Circle Award, a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, the Rome Prize, a Pablo Neruda Presidential Medal of Honor, and the American Academy of Arts and Letters Award for literature. He serves as president of the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation and lives in Brooklyn.
