I started writing poetry as a teenager in suburban Chicago out of emotional desperation. Edward Hirsch chicagodesperationemotional Change image and share on social
I began to imitate what I was reading, and I started to become a poet, even though what I was writing were not good poems. Edward Hirsch begingoodimitate Change image and share on social
I didn't read poetry seriously until college, when I really began to devour it in a very intense way. I also discovered that a poet is a maker. Before that, I thought a poet was someone who wrote about his own experiences. Edward Hirsch begincollegedevour share on social
There have always been great defenses of poetry, and I've tried to write mine, and I think all of my work and criticism is a defense of poetry to try and keep something alive in poetry. Edward Hirsch alivecriticismdefense Change image and share on social
When I was young, I wrote everything, and I thought I would be an all around writer, that I would write everything. Edward Hirsch thinkwritewriter Change image and share on social
I've been fascinated over the years by the way refrains work. Think, say, of the refrains in Yeats' ballads. Ideally, each time the refrain comes back in a poem, it is both the same and different. It works by counterpoint and reiteration. It accrues meaning. Edward Hirsch accruebackballad share on social
Our culture has become increasingly intolerant of that acute sorrow, that intense mental anguish and deep remorse which may be defined as grief. We want to medicate such sorrow away. Edward Hirsch acuteanguishculture Change image and share on social
Poets have always celebrated grief as one of the deepest human emotions. Edward Hirsch celebratedeepemotion Change image and share on social
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 childelegyfelt Change image and share on social
It's very important to me to be an American poet, a Jewish poet, a poet who came of age in the 1960s. Edward Hirsch 1960sageamerican Change image and share on social
