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How to Read a Poem
How to Read a Poem: And Fall in Love with Poetry | Edward Hirsch
8 posts | 10 read | 10 to read
"Read a poem to yourself in the middle of the night. Turn on a single lamp and read it while you're alone in an otherwise dark room or while someone sleeps next to you. Say it over to yourself in a place where silence reigns and the din of culturethe constant buzzing noise that surrounds youhas momentarily stopped. This poem has come from a great distance to find you." So begins this astonishing book by one of our leading poets and critics. In an unprecedented exploration of the genre, Hirsch writes about what poetry is, why it matters, and how we can open up our imaginations so that its messagewhich is of vital importance in day-to-day lifecan reach us and make a difference. For Hirsch, poetry is not just a part of life, it is life, and expresses like no other art our most sublime emotions. In a marvelous reading of world poetry, including verse by such poets as Wallace Stevens, Elizabeth Bishop, Pablo Neruda, William Wordsworth, Sylvia Plath, Charles Baudelaire, and many more, Hirsch discovers the meaning of their words and ideas and brings their sublime message home into our hearts. A masterful work by a master poet, this brilliant summation of poetry and human nature will speak to all readers who long to place poetry in their lives but don't know how to read it.
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BC_Dittemore
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Pickpick

Hirsch‘s love of poetry is infectious. I am in awe of his ability to look at poetry analytically. To discern metaphor through the poem‘s form, to see allegory in the word choice, to look at a poem as a work of art yet not be desensitized to its power. What else is great about this book? How many new poets I have discovered and how many wonderful poems Hirsch includes here.

Time to hit up the library and check out like half their poetry section!

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WanderingBookaneer
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LibrarianRyan Nice choice. I would suck at this group but it's nice to see something different. 3y
WanderingBookaneer I‘m fully aware there may not be any interest, @LibrarianRyan . I may have to change it. However, I can see you reading novels in verse: Kent State, Poet X, some Kwame Alexander, etc. 3y
LibrarianRyan @WanderingBookaneer I have read 2 novels in verse. I loved Long Way down. I listened to Punching the air, but wish i had read it. And another, I cant remember. I am going to try for a few more this year for the challenge prompt for reading outside your usual format. I was thinking Poet X, or maybe even one of Ellen Hopkin's novels. But I have not decided yet. 3y
LibrarianRyan Hey, Can I get your new mailing address. I want to send a card: missryanaf@gmail.com 3y
33 likes4 comments
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rwmg
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Book poem

Full moon.
The night listener
Lies sleeping.
Silence.

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underground_bks
Pickpick

I love Edward Hirsch, his poems and how he writes about poetry. For some reason, I struggled with this one. I actually would recommend his collection of Washington Post Book World columns, Poet‘s Choice, for falling in love with poetry. Still, this is a rich, beautiful journey through poetry.

7 likes1 comment
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underground_bks
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I‘ve been straight struggling with this book for longer than I care to admit. The fault is fully mine, I‘ve been in a weird space with poetry lately, but this chapter on poems “Beyond Desolation” has swept me away (how I‘m used to feeling when reading Edward Hirsch). Here‘s the last stanza of Robert Frost‘s “Desert Places,” so powerful and resonant to me!

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TheBookKeeper
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The reader of poetry is a kind of pilgrim setting out, setting forth. The reader is what Wallace Stevens calls 'the scholar of one candle'. Reading poetry is an adventure in renewal, a creative act, a perpetual beginning...
Edward Hirsch
How to Read a Poem and Fall in Love with Poetry

#edwardhirsch #howtoreadapoem

51 likes3 stack adds
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underground_bks
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Poetry as salvaging a shipwreck ⚓️🌦📖

8 likes2 stack adds