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Quote by Edward Hirsch

“When I was a freshman in college I went to Grinnell College in Iowa. I brought my poems to my freshman humanities teacher whose name was Carol Parsinan, a wonderful teacher. And Carol did a really great thing for me. She taught me more than anyone.”

Quote by Edward Hirsch

Author

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. more

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“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

“I started then to try and shape something rather than just express it and when I started to shape something and to imitate other poems that were written by other people, when I had tried to integrate my reading and my writing I was on my path.”

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Author:Edward Hirsch

“I guess that would have been 1968. I was a freshman in college and I wasn't writing good poems, but I was at least trying to write poems then.”

Writing Trying Has Beens College Freshman

Author:Edward Hirsch

“There's been no poet, no great poet in the history of poetry who hasn't also been a great reader of poetry. This is sometimes distressing to my students when I tell them this.”

Sometimes Students Poet Reader Great Poet Distressing

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

“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.”

Way Helping Comedy Divine Models Guides Underworld Inferno Divine 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.”

Way Needs Writing Book Turns Poet Calling Six Models Recognition Guidance Epic Underworld Inferno Aeneas

Author:Edward Hirsch

“There are many poets that use as my models. In my first book of poems, I had several for the "Sleepwalkers," I had several poems that were apprentice poems like this in which I take a walk with a poet who is no longer alive.”

Firsts Book Use Walks Alive Poet Models Apprentice

Author:Edward Hirsch

“I walk with Federico Garcia Lorca around the Upper West Side in Manhattan because that was a neighborhood he lived in and I imagine walking around Paris with Cesar Vallejo, a great Peruvian poet who lived in Paris. And I kind of create the walk as a kind of drama of my apprenticeship.”

Kind Sides Walks Imagine Poet Walking Drama West Paris Neighborhood Manhattan Apprenticeship West Side Lorca Peruvians

Author:Edward Hirsch

“I think one of the things that distinguished my work from the beginning when I was in college was my turning towards poetry from other countries.”

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Author:Edward Hirsch