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Edward Hirsch Quotes

Poet

Edward Hirsch is an American poet renowned for his profound emotion and rich imagination. His works often explore themes of personal identity, history, and memory, earning him the admiration of readers and critics alike.

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All Thinking Poet Writing Poetry Is Trying Needs Reader Way Kind People Language Sometimes Certain Different Feelings Wells Book Culture Fiction Found

Famous Edward Hirsch Quotes

“She [Carol Parsinan] somehow read my poems and came back to me and convinced me that I could be a poet, that I had the passion and the enthusiasm and the creativity to become a poet, but that what I was writing was not poetry because I was just expressing my feelings and I wasn't try to make anything.”

Writing Trying Feelings Passion Creativity Poet Convinced Enthusiasm Poetry Is Carols

Author:Edward Hirsch

“Now, I do say, "It's possible. You might be the first. I'm not saying it's impossible, but the odds are very much against you." All great poets have been great readers and the way to learn your craft in poetry is by reading other poetry and by letting it guide you.”

Way Firsts Has Beens Might Reading Impossible Poet Reader Guides Crafts Poetry Is Odds Great Poet

Author:Edward Hirsch

“And a lot of poetry is putting yourself back into the state of wonder that you have before things when you're a child. It's not only a joyous wonder, it's sometimes a grief stricken wonder.”

Children Sometimes States Grief Wonder Poetry Is Joyous State Of Wonder

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.”

Thinking Ideas Hard Facts Dies Found Childhood Driven Poetry Is Get Over Unbearable Lyric Poetry

Author:Edward Hirsch

“Now, the process of writing poetry is very messy. Not systematic, never quite the same”

Writing Process Poetry Is Never Quit Messy Systematic Writing Poetry

Author:Edward Hirsch

“I would say there are different kinds of poems. There are things that poets in the history of poetry hit upon when they're very young that can never be outdone and it's a remarkable, strange experience when you think of say Arthur Rimbaud who write poetry between the ages of 17 and 21 whose career was over by the time he was 22.”

Thinking Writing Kind Different Age Young Careers Strange Poet Remarkable Poetry Is Different Kinds Arthur

Author:Edward Hirsch

“The mysterious thing about writing poetry is that when you're - when things are going poorly, when you're not thinking well, even making two sentences together is extremely hard and I just can't make the connections.”

Thinking Writing Wells Two Hard Together Connections Sentences Mysterious Poetry Is Writing Poetry Mysterious Things

Author:Edward Hirsch

“I would be happier if people who went through MFA programs also were already, by then, deeply committed readers of poetry because we need readers of poetry as much as writers of poetry.”

People Ifs Needs Would Be Reader Program Committed Poetry Is

Author:Edward Hirsch

“First of all I think that poetry is very noble and I always have with me the sense of the nobility of poetry.”

Thinking Firsts Noble Poetry Is Nobility

Author:Edward Hirsch

“The idea of how to read a poem is based on the idea that poetry needs you as a reader. That the experience of poetry, the meaning in poetry is a kind of circuit that takes place between a poet, a poem and a reader and that meaning doesn't exist or in here in poems alone.”

Needs Kind Ideas Poet Reader Poetry Is Need You Circuits

Author:Edward Hirsch

“I have tried to remember throughout that poetry is made by flesh-and-blood human beings. It is a bloody art. It lives on a human scale and thrives when it is passed from hand to hand.”

Humans Art Made Hands Remember Human Beings Blood Flesh Scales Thrive Poetry Is Bloody Flesh And Blood

Author:Edward Hirsch

“One of the deep fundamentals of poetry is the recurrence of sounds, syllables, words, phrases, lines, and stanzas. Repetition can be one of the most intoxicating features of poetry. It creates expectations, which can be fulfilled or frustrated. It can create a sense of boredom and complacency, but it can also incite enchantment and inspire bliss.”

Sound Lines Inspire Expectations Fundamentals Features Bliss Phrases Boredom Poetry Is Frustrated Fulfilled Repetition Complacency Enchantment Syllables Recurrence

Author:Edward Hirsch

“Reading poetry is an adventure in renewal, a creative act, a perpetual beginning, a rebirth of wonder.”

Reading Wonder Creative Adventure Poetry Is Perpetual Rebirth Renewal Reading Poetry

Book:How to Read a Poem: And Fall in Love with Poetry

Source: How to Read a Poem: And Fall in Love with Poetry

About the Author

Born: January 20, 1950
Known for: Poet
Quotes: 130

Books & Sources

How to Read a Poem: And Fall in Love with PoetryRelated source material

Gabriel: A PoemRelated source material

The Living FireRelated source material

A Poet's GlossaryRelated source material

Best American Poetry 2016Related source material

Lay Back the Darkness: PoemsRelated source material

Special Orders: PoemsRelated source material

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