41 Edward Hirsch Quotes for You to Enjoy

Edward Hirsch

American Poet

Born: Jan 20, 1950

Me Poet Poetry Think Writing You

Related authors: Edgar Allan Poe Emily Dickinson Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Maya Angelou Ralph Waldo Emerson Robert Frost T. S. Eliot Walt Whitman

Someone who's awake in the middle of the night is a soul consciousness when everyone else is asleep, and that creates a feeling of solitude in poetry that I very much like. Edward Hirsch

Soul Solitude Feeling Else Everyone Everyone Else Someone Poetry Like Very Middle Much Creates Asleep Awake Consciousness Night

The elegy does the work of mourning; it allows us to experience mortality. It turns loss into remembrance, and it delivers an inheritance. Edward Hirsch

Work Experience Remembrance Mortality Does Loss Mourning Us Turns Inheritance

Poets have always celebrated grief as one of the deepest human emotions. Edward Hirsch

Grief Emotions Poets Always Celebrated Human Human Emotions Deepest

James Salter is a consummate storyteller. His manners are precise and elegant; he has a splendid New York accent; he runs his hands through his gray hair and laughs boyishly. Edward Hirsch

I'm a poet, and I spent my life in poetry. Edward Hirsch

Life My Life Poet Spent Poetry

I think ancient cultures incorporated death into the experience of life in a more natural way than we have done. In our obsessive focus on youth, on celebrity, our denial of death makes it harder for people who are grieving to find a place for that grief. Edward Hirsch

Life Death Grief Youth Experience Natural People Denial Focus Think Our Way Ancient Find More Obsessive Makes Cultures Celebrity Than Done Place Grieving Natural Way Who Harder Incorporated

I don't think you can read poetry while you're watching television very well. Edward Hirsch

You Think Television Poetry Well Read Very While Watching Watching Television

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 inhere in poems alone. Edward Hirsch

My focus is on the reader and that the poet's job is not to inspire himself or herself. The poet's job is to inspire some future reader. Edward Hirsch

Future Inspire Job Focus Poet Herself Some Himself Reader

There's never been a culture without poetry in the history of the world. Edward Hirsch

History Culture World Poetry Never Without Been The History Of

I don't think poetry will die, but I think that poetry does demand a certain kind of attention to language. It does demand a certain space in order to read it, and I think that space is somewhat threatened by the lack of attention that people have and the amount of time that they give to things. Edward Hirsch

A person who's only suffering can't write a poem. There are choices to be made, and you need to be objective. Edward Hirsch

You Suffering Made Objective Poem Only Write Person Choices Need

I'd say people do need some help with poetry because I think poetry just helps takes us to places that Americans aren't always accustomed to going. Edward Hirsch

People Think Say Some Poetry Takes Because Always American Going Accustomed Just Places Us Help Helps Need

As far as I'm concerned, freedom is the most important thing to creativity. You should feel free to write in whatever way, whatever language, feels comfortable to you. Edward Hirsch

I come from Chicago, and the landscape of the Midwest has always meant a great deal to me. Edward Hirsch

Great Me Great Deal Come Deal Always Chicago Midwest Landscape Meant

There's something really unnatural about losing a child, and there's something unnatural about having to write an elegy for your child, but I felt that I wanted people to know what he was like. Edward Hirsch

People Losing Unnatural About Something Having Write He Like Know Felt Child Wanted Really Your Your Child

You're trying to write about something that's sacred. You're trying to bring the seriousness of life and death to it, and you're trying to find a way to dramatize it, and you're trying to give language to it, which is inadequate. But it's important to try. Edward Hirsch

Life Death You Try Language Important Way Find Life And Death About Give Something Sacred Write Trying Which Inadequate Seriousness Bring

Poetry is a form of necessary speech... I have sought to restore the aura of sacred practice that accompanies true poetic creation, to honor both the rational and the irrational elements of poetry. Edward Hirsch

Honor Practice Creation Restore Poetic Both Poetry Rational Sacred True Sought Accompanies Aura Irrational Form Elements Necessary Speech

The terms of poetry - some simple, some complicated, some ancient, some new - should bring us closer to what we're hearing, enlarging our experience of it, enabling us to describe what we're reading, to feel and think with greater precision. Edward Hirsch

There are still many tribal cultures where poetry and song, there is just one word for them. There are other cultures with literacy where poetry and song are distinguished. But poetry always remembers that it has its origins in music. Edward Hirsch

Music Song Word Tribal Other Distinguished One Word Poetry Remembers Always Still Cultures Just Where Literacy Just One Them Many Origins

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