[.ca] How to Read a Poem: And Fall in Love with Poetry (ISBN 0151004196)

From Amazon.com:
Edward Hirsch's primer may very well inspire readers to catch the next flight for Houston and sign up for any and all of his courses. Not for nothing does this attentive and adoring poet-teacher title his book How to Read a Poem and Fall in Love with Poetry; Hirsch's big guide to getting the most out of this form is packed with inspiring examples and thousands of epigrams and allusions. Above all, he is intent on poetry's physical and emotional power. In chapters devoted to the lyric, the narrative, the poetry of sorrow, of ecstasy, of witness, Hirsch continually conveys the sheer ecstasy of this vital act of communication. (He takes us, for instance, with great care and mounting excitement, through Emily Brontë's "Spellbound," which he discovered at age 8 when "baseball season was over for the year.") Above all, there is the thrill of discovery as Hirsch offers up works by artists ranging from Anna Akhmatova to Walt Whitman, Elizabeth Bishop to Adam Zagajewski, and everyone in between. I defy you not to fall in love with Wislawa Szymborska on the basis of "The Joy of Writing," which begins: Why does this written doe bound through these written woods? For a drink of written water from a spring whose surface will xerox her soft muzzle? Why does she lift her head; does she hear something? Perched on four slim legs borrowed from the truth, she pricks up her ears beneath my fingertips. Elsewhere, Hirsch's section on Sterling Brown's redefinitions of African American work songs should put this neglected poet back on the map. And his introductions to Eastern European poets such as Jirí Orten, Attila József, and Miklós Radnóti will make you want to ferret out their hard-to-find work. (Perhaps his publisher should put out a companion anthology...) Hirsch manages to cram entire worlds and lives into 258 pages of text (which he follows up with a huge glossary and extended reading list). His two paragraphs on Juan Gelman, whose son was murdered and pregnant daughter-in-law disappeared during Argentina's "Dirty War," bring this man's art into clear, tragic focus. But even here, the compulsively generous author is compelled to enshrine the words of other critics, foregrounding Eduardo Galeano and Julio Cortázar, who describes Gelman's art as "a permanent caress of words on unknown tombs." What a pleasure it is to be inside Hirsch's head! He seems to have read everything and absorbed most of it, and he wears his considerable scholarship lightly. Many of his fellow poets have suffered for their art, have been imprisoned and killed--but above all, Hirsch makes us realize that, no matter what the artist's circumstances, subject, or theme, "the stakes are always high" in this game that writer and reader alike must keep playing. --Kerry Fried

rewarding:
I read "How to Read a Poem and Fall in Love with Poetry" by Edward Hirsch as part of an ongoing study of the Psalms that I am engaged in (The Psalm are poems after all). Hirsch's book is oceanic. The waves of Hirsch's passion for the written word break again and again over the reader. It is not an "easy" book. Still, there is much to that can be taken away from these pages. My favorite image is that of a poem being a spell that is cast by its author (using this imagery, the Psalms are then spells cast by God through the hands of humans who are steeped in the raw earthiness of their experience--spells cast to bring future generations up in the training of prayer). The suggested reading list at the back of the book is worth the price of the book all by itself. "How to Read a Poem and Fall in Love with Poetry" is a great book that more than rewards the reader for their effort.

not for beginners!:
this is not a 'beginner's guide to poetry'. this was my expectation, and i found the book too difficult to wade through. perhaps i will return to it, once i have a firmer grasp on the basics of poetry. also, the author's florid, overwrought, style grew quickly tiresome. his use of the word 'unbearable' to describe at least three separate poems (or parts of poems), for example...... please!

You will underline the whole thing:
This book is not only for beginners. I am not a beginner, and i enjoyed every word of it. It reinforced everything i feel about poetry but can't put into words. Hirsch is a master at expressing what a single poem can do, and the powers of poetry from around the world.

The Worst Book I Have Ever Read!:
I am sorry for anyone who thinks this is a good book because they obviously have never read anything that is worth reading. This book is terrible. The egotistical Edward Hirsch never tells the reader how to read a poem, but rather elaborates on his own relationship and reaction to each poem. This guy certainly gives the reader the feeling that he or she is an intellectual, but never allows the reader to interpret or break down a poem for themselves. Without a doubt the worst book that I have ever pushed myself to read. (Why didn't I quit reading it? Because it was summer reading! AHHHHHHH!)

Rewarding But Inconsistent:
In his acknowledgments, Hirsch states that "this book was conceived as a whole." That's a little hard to believe; there is only a slight sense of overall organization to the volume. Readers might be better served by approaching this as a collection of separate but related essays in which Hirsch offers his interesting and perceptive thoughts on individual poems and on poetry as a genre. These essays do not offer any sort of step-by-step approach to reading poetry (as a reader might infer from the title), but by modelling his own readings of well-selected poems, Hirsch will both inspire and inform you. This is not a beginning-level book, but those with a modest knowledge of poetry will find this to be an enjoyable next step, and the glossary and reading list at the end are valuable resources.