“In high school I was leafing through an anthology that our teachers had given up and I found a poem, I go, "That's so strange. This poem looks so much like my grandfather's poem."” LooksSchoolFoundGivenTeacherStrangeHigh SchoolGrandfatherGiven UpMy GrandfatherAnthology Author:Edward Hirsch
“Then I found another one, grandpa's poem. It turned out it had been written by Emily Brontë and it wasn't my grandfather's poem at all, although my response to it, I think, was pretty much the same, I just had the author wrong.” ThinkingFoundWrittenResponseGrandfatherMy GrandfatherEmilyGrandpa Author:Edward Hirsch
“I didn't ever consider poetry the province exclusively of English and American literature and I discovered a great amount in reading Polish poetry and other Eastern European poetry and reading Russian poetry and reading Latin American and Spanish poetry and I've always found models in those other poetries of poets who could help me on my path.” HelpingReadingFoundLiteraturePathPoetAmountModelsHelp MeLatinEasternPolishLatin AmericaProvincesAmerican LiteratureLatin American Author:Edward Hirsch
“I have the idea that lyric poetry is a poetry that's driven by a sense of the presence of death. That there's something unbearable about the fact that we're going to die and that we can't stand it and I think you find that out in childhood and you don't really - at least I found it out in childhood and I found it hard to get over.” ThinkingIdeasHardFactsDiesFoundChildhoodDrivenPoetry IsGet OverUnbearableLyric Poetry Author:Edward Hirsch
“But, the best times I have found, in my life, are late at night or early in the morning and I think it's because you're outside the social realm.” ThinkingNightFoundSocialMorningLateRealmsBest Times Author:Edward Hirsch
“And what I've found over time is that for me to write a poem that I think is worthy that I can live with, two things have to happen.” ThinkingWritingI CanTwoHappensFoundWorthyTwo Things Author:Edward Hirsch
“And Mandelstam says a poet - you go down to the shore and you see an unlikely looking from a bottle from the past, you open it. Mandelstam says, "It's okay to do so. I'm not reading someone else's mail. It was addressed to whoever found it. I found it, therefore it's addressed to me."” PastReadingFoundPoetOkayBottlesShoreMailUnlikely Author:Edward Hirsch
