March 25, 2008
Bestselling author Hirsch shares personal side of poetry
Last Wednesday, celebrated poet Edward Hirsch treated a crowd of several hundred to works from his latest collection of “relentlessly personal” poems, Special Order.
During the reading, which was part of the Department of Literature’s Visiting Writer’s Series, the witty, warm Hirsch shared the stories behind his poems, many of which are dedicated to other writers who touched his life and shaped his career. A longtime professor of creative writing at the University of Houston, Hirsch also described his love affair with poetry, which began when he was a teenager in Chicago.
“I would spend every weekend at the branch library. That’s where I fell in love,” said Hirsch, whose poem, “Branch Library,” pays homage to the “wobbly stacks and flimsy wooden tables on the second floor.”
As a student at Grinnell College in Iowa, Hirsch discovered the work of English poet Gerard Manley Hopkins, whose poems “articulated for me what I always felt deeply within myself.” Hirsch emulated Hopkins’ writing style for a time, before developing his own rhythm.
“When you’re starting out, you imitate the greats. Eventually, though, you have to leave them behind. It’s a painful thing, but you must venture out on your own,” said Hirsch.
President of the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, Hirsch also holds a PhD in folklore from the University of Pennsylvania. He’s the author of six previous collections of poetry, including Wild Gratitude, which won the National Book Critics Circle Award. Hirsch also penned the national bestseller, How to Read a Poem and Fall in Love with Poetry. —AF
