| Earthly Measures: Poems Contributor(s): Hirsch, Edward (Author) |
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ISBN: 0679765662 ISBN-13: 9780679765660 Publisher: Knopf Publishing Group OUR PRICE: $16.20 Product Type: Paperback - Other Formats Published: February 1996 Annotation: Edward Hirsch's strong, arresting poems have been praised from the start of his career. Of his second book, Wild Gratitude, Robert Penn Warren said, "I am convinced that the best poems here are unsurpassed in our time". This, his fourth collection, contains his finest work. From gritty, apocalyptic views of the urban Midwest to brilliantly empathetic portrayals of Simone Weil and Hugo von Hofmannsthal, the range of poems is at once wide and subtle. "In the Midwest" speaks of the nightmare of abandon and decay; "From a Train (Hofmannsthal in Greece)" is the poet's compelling view of a timeless landscape; "The Italian Muse" is a meditation on Henry James in Rome; "Luminist Paintings at the National Gallery" beautifully evokes the sense of nineteenth-century American countryside. There is an argument about transcendence in these poems, an evocation of American spaces and European landscapes, a quest for reconciliation to the earth as it is. Hirsch's work, as Anthony Hecht has said, "has not only the courage of its strong emotions, but the language and form that makes and keeps them clear and true". |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Poetry | American - General - Poetry | Subjects & Themes - Inspirational & Religious |
| Dewey: 811.54 |
| Physical Information: 0.41" H x 5.95" W x 8.41" (0.45 lbs) 96 pages |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: "These are poems of immense wonder and rigor. To say that they are religious poems is only to recognize their grandeur and generosity, and their heart-breaking longing." --Patricia Hampl, The New York Times Book Review "With Earthly Measures, Edward Hirsch breaks through the ring of fire and captures his Muse. The voice is now uncannily his own; uncanny because we believe we have heard it before, yet the accents are unearthly and utterly fresh. Like his poem on Art Pepper, this voice also hears the chords of Stevens and Celan, but knows that 'play solo means going on alone, improvising.'" --Harold Bloom "Edward Hirsch is one of the finest poets we have He has wonderful gifts to offer us: a strong, touching narrative voice; alert, mindful eye; the moral energy that informs his manner of writing and his choice of subjects; a desire to reach his readers, bring them into the world he observes, creates." --Robert Coles "I can't think of any contemporary whose poems have such an unfeigned urgency of feeling. At the same time, Hirsch's poems have a considered richness in them, and greatly repay rereading." --Richard Wilbur |