I think it's one of the things that drive lyric poetry, our sense of mortality. — Edward Hirsch Copy Share Image
The elegy does the work of mourning; it allows us to experience mortality. It turns loss into remembrance, and it delivers an… — Edward Hirsch Copy Share Image
Poets have always celebrated grief as one of the deepest human emotions. — Edward Hirsch Copy Share Image
Our culture has become increasingly intolerant of that acute sorrow, that intense mental anguish and deep remorse which may be defined as… — Edward Hirsch Copy Share Image
I think there are different kinds of poetry for different stages of life and there's the wild, exuberance of youth, there's the… — Edward Hirsch Copy Share Image
I think ancient cultures incorporated death into the experience of life in a more natural way than we have done. In our… — Edward Hirsch Copy Share Image
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… — Edward Hirsch Copy Share Image
After my grandfather died I went down to the basement of my family house where my family kept books, anthologies and things… — Edward Hirsch Copy Share Image
“When Ungaretti lost his nine-year-old boy He understood that death is death In an extremely brutal way It was the most terrible… — Edward Hirsch Copy Share Image
“Grief broke down in phrases And extrapolated lines From me without myself Tear-stained pillow of stone I felt I was lying Beside… — Edward Hirsch Copy Share Image
I have the idea that lyric poetry is a poetry that's driven by a sense of the presence of death. That there's… — Edward Hirsch Copy Share Image
And my experience is the best titles, for me, emerge in the process of writing. They don't usually come at the very beginning and… — Edward Hirsch Copy Share
“I did not know the work of mourning Is like carrying a bag of cement Up a mountain at night The mountaintop is not… — Edward Hirsch Copy Share
“Fall" Fall, falling, fallen. That’s the way the season Changes its tense in the long-haired maples That dot the road; the veiny hand-shaped leaves… — Edward Hirsch Copy Share
I find great consolation in having a lot of poetry books around. I believe that writing poetry and reading it are deeply intertwined. I've… — Edward Hirsch Copy Share
I had feelings that I didn't know what to do with, and I felt better when I started writing them. I thought of it… — Edward Hirsch Copy Share
I think in terms of educating a group of readers, MFA programs are very good. I just think the model of MFA programs in… — Edward Hirsch Copy Share
“Jonson wrote a poem and called his son His best piece of poetrie A lovely line a little loathsome I loved that poem once… — Edward Hirsch Copy Share
After my grandfather died I went down to the basement of my family house where my family kept books, anthologies and things and there… — Edward Hirsch Copy Share
It does demand a certain space in order to read it and I think that space is somewhat threatened by the lack of attention… — Edward Hirsch Copy Share
...I put down these memorandums of my affections in honor of tenderness, in honor of all of those who have been conscripted into the… — Edward Hirsch Copy Share
You're shadowed by your own dream, especially as you get older, of trying to create something that will last in poetry. And so, you're… — Edward Hirsch Copy Share
The attention deficit disorder of the culture is very distressing in America now and I think it puts a lot of things at risk,… — Edward Hirsch Copy Share
Now, as I've gotten older I've been able to write more quickly. Sometimes I get in the space of something and I can do… — Edward Hirsch Copy Share
Poetry takes courage because you have to face things and you try to articulate how you feel. — Edward Hirsch Copy Share
