Edward Hirsch

Edward Hirsch (born January 20, 1950), an American poet and critic.

Quotes

 * The line is a way of thinking in poetry, by poetry..it paces the poem.
 * 'Five points' vol 4 no 2 Georgia State University Press Winter 2000


 * These ruinous days of Autumn.At dusk, the brightness seeps through the crumbling air, at dusk the air gathers up the brightness
 * 'The Renunciation of Poetry'


 * I was never able to pray but let me inscribe my name in the book of waves.
 * 'I was never able to pray'

How to Read a Poem And Fall in Love with Poetry (1998)

 * Poetry is a voicing, a calling forth, words waiting to be vocalized.


 * Inspiration is inbreathing, indwelling, poetry can never be entirely willed. It may be true a poet is given only a single line but that line is a gift from the unconscious, intution, a perception.


 * There is no true poetry unconcious inspiration.


 * For most of history poetry has been an oral art, it retains the vestiges of orality, an experience embedded in the sensuality of sounds.


 * The poem is an original and unique creation, but it is reading and recitation: participation.


 * The poet creates it; the people by recitation recreate it. Poet and reader (hearer) are moments of the same reality.


 * The poem is an act beyond paraphrase because what is being said is always inseparable from the way it is being said.


 * Poetry is a form of necessary speech.

Quotes about Hirsch

 * Hirsch's poems are compassionate, reverential , sometimes relievingly ruthless.
 * Review-'Los Angeles Times Book Review' by Dana Goodyear

External link

 * Examples of Hirsch poems
 * Extract links Hirsch's 'Poets Glossary'