“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.” WayFirstsHas BeensMightReadingImpossiblePoetReaderGuidesCraftsPoetry IsOddsGreat Poet Author:Edward Hirsch
“A great model for this is the way that Dante calls on Virgil at the beginning of 'The Inferno,' 'The Divine Comedy,' to help guide him through the underworld.” WayHelpingComedyDivineModelsGuidesUnderworldInfernoDivine Comedy Author:Edward Hirsch
“In a way, that's also a recognition that Dante needs Virgil and that the Inferno needs the Aeneid and that the epic needs a model and that for Dante to write this great poem he needs someone to come before him and he turns to Virgil's text, especially book six where Aeneas goes down into the underworld. And for me, that's a model of the poet's relationship to previous poetry, to another poetry as calling out for guidance.” WayNeedsWritingBookTurnsPoetCallingSixModelsRecognitionGuidanceEpicUnderworldInfernoAeneas Author:Edward Hirsch
“I think it shapes it in very deep ways that you don't entirely understand. Rainer Maria Rilke said there are two inexhaustible sources for poetry. One is dreams, and the other is childhood. I think childhood is an inexhaustible source of your becoming who you will be and certain deep feelings are set inside of you.” ThinkingWaySaidTwoFeelingsDreamCertainChildhoodSourceBecomingShapesVery DeepDeep Feeling Author:Edward Hirsch
“Often you've read another poem that you think is so beautiful that you'd like to make something like that. And so you try to make a sonnet that works in a certain kind of way, or you try to make something that's songlike, or you create a refrain, or you love the way a poem works in two line stanzas and you try to do that.” ThinkingWayTryingKindTwoBeautifulCertainLinesSonnetRefrain Author:Edward Hirsch
“Sometimes the title comes to you at the beginning, sometimes it comes at the end. The very best way in my experience is when it comes in the middle.” WayEndsSometimesMiddleBest WayTitles Author:Edward Hirsch
“And it was the title August 13th for most of the way and then near the end, sometime in the process, I got the idea that maybe that would be a somewhat bland title and I got the idea for wild gratitude, which I'm very proud of as a title. So, I think it works best when you find it in the process.” ThinkingWayIdeasEndsWould BeProcessProudGratitudeTitlesAugustBland Author:Edward Hirsch
“I was once doing a question and answer period with the novelist Jane Smiley in a bookstore and someone asked us what our processes were and Jane said hers and then I said mine and Jane said, "Well, if I had a student like that I'd force him never to write like that again because you could never write a novel in the way that you write poetry."” IfsWayWritingWellsSaidForceProcessAnswersNovelStudentsMinesPeriodsNovelistsJaneBookstoresQuestions And AnswersSmiley Author:Edward Hirsch
“So, the process of revision, it's not systematic. But for me, I mean, I know a lot of poets who write out a draft and then revise it and I think they're happier people. But, I'm just not able to do it that way. I need to just continually examine it as I do it.” PeopleThinkingKnowsWayNeedsWritingMeanAbleProcessPoetSystematicRevision Author:Edward Hirsch
“The way to become a poet is to read poetry and to imitate what you read and to read passionately and widely and in as involved a way as you can.” WayPoetInvolved Author:Edward Hirsch
“When I taught at the University of Houston in the Creative Writing program we required the poets to take workshops in fiction writing and we required the fiction writers to take workshops in poetry. And the reason for that is because the fiction writers seemed to need to learn how to pay greater attention to language itself, to the way that language works.” WayNeedsWritingReasonLanguagePayAttentionFictionCreativeGreaterTaughtPoetProgramUniversityCreative WritingWorkshopsFiction WritingFiction WritersHouston Author:Edward Hirsch
“Fiction writers learn about the development of metaphor, the use of rhythm, the way that language is compacted in order to express the feelings of - express their own feelings and the feelings of their characters.” WayCharacterUseFeelingsOrderLanguageFictionDevelopmentMetaphorRhythmFiction Writers Author:Edward Hirsch
