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Loading... How to Read a Poem: And Fall in Love with Poetry (edition 2000)by Edward Hirsch
Work InformationHow to Read a Poem: And Fall in Love with Poetry by Edward Hirsch
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Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. No current Talk conversations about this book. Edward Hirsch wrote an excellent book about reading poetry. Beginning my foray into poetry this book was helpful as a guide and also a source of entertainment (Hirsch gets a bit hyperbolic at times). The guy clearly loves poetry and shares through his emotional and intellectual responses to poems the proper way to approach verse. I read in another review that the first seven chapters are the strongest, most coherent. The first seven chapters follow the thesis of the book and the remaining examine facets of poetry (like post-war Polish poetry) that interest Hirsch as an individual. I found the latter chapters engaging and stimulating but certainly not nearly as instructive as the first seven. ( ) I feel this book's title does not truly describe what it offers. It is a book of essays that takes as it's topic the subtle enchantment poetry produces; it is a book length paean to the art of poetry. It is not particularly effective as an introductory volume on poetry for the ignorant layman, as Hirsch's analysis is informed by a lifetime spent spent reading and writing poetry, and as a result can seem unapproachable at times. However, Hirsh's enthusiasm and love for poetry is infectious, and I came away from the book with a greater appreciation and respect for the art form. This book left me with a lot to learn about the form and history of poetry, which I had expected to learn more about during the course of this book, it successfully delves into the essence and the romance of poetry. This book left me with a desire to learn more, and to read more poetry. Although this book may not have been what I expected, it was highly successful in the end. The title of this book is misleading. It does not tell a beginner (or an experienced reader, for that matter) how to read a poem. I wish the publisher had called it "How to Fall in Love with Poetry." The author shares his own views on reading and interpreting poems. And he seems to assume that his audience has read a lot of poetry. I mean a LOT. An enjoyable read, but frustrating in being written for an audience not like me. I mostly used this book to discover new poems to love. Among them: Yehuda Amichai's "A Pity. We Were Such a Good Invention," Delmore Schwartz's "Baudelaire," the last lines of Robert Frost's "Desert Places," Nazim Hikmet's "Some Advice to Those Who Will Serve Time in Prison" and "On Living," Tadeusz Rozewicz's "In the Midst of Life," Wislawa Szymborska's "Children of Our Age" and "Reality Demands," WCW's "Aspohdel, That Greeny Flower," and reawakened my interest in Anglo-Saxon poetry. no reviews | add a review
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This volume presents an exploration of poetry and feeling, introducing poems selected by the author as emblematic because they suggest something crucial about the nature of poetry itself, and offering his insights on how the poems should be read. In this guide, the author reaches out to all those who may be disaffected by the mere mention of poetry and instructs the reader to focus on a personal, emotional response. No library descriptions found. |
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Google Books — Loading... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)808.1Literature By Topic Rhetoric and anthologies Rhetoric of poetryLC ClassificationRatingAverage:
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