How to Read a Poem and Fall in Love with Poetry

Hirsch, Edward

ISBN 10: 0156005662 / ISBN 13: 9780156005661

Published by Harvest / Harcourt, San Diego, 1999

About this Item

8vo, 354 pp.

Seller Inventory # 081433

Bibliographic Details

• Title: How to Read a Poem and Fall in Love with Poetry
• Publisher: Harvest / Harcourt, San Diego
• Publication Date: 1999
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0156005662
• ISBN 13: 9780156005661
• Binding: softcover
• Edition: Later prt.
• Condition: Nearly fine copy
• Seller catalogs:
  • Poetry

About this title

Synopsis

"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 culture-the constant buzzing noise that surrounds you-has 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. How to Read a Poem is an unprecedented exploration of poetry and feeling. In language at once acute and emotional, distinguished poet and critic Edward Hirsch describes why poetry matters and how we can open up our imaginations so that its message can make a difference. In a marvellous 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. 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. AUTHOR Edward Hirsch is the author of many books, including five books of poetry. He also writes a weekly poetry column for the Washington Post Book World. He has received a Guggenheim Fellowship, the National Book Critics Circle award, the Prix de Rome, and a MacArthur Fellowship.

About the Author

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.