Edward Hirsch's How To Read A Poem And Fall In Love With Poetry

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This week’s section of Edward Hirsch’s book, How to Read a Poem and Fall in Love with Poetry, places great emphasis on the role of the poet as a herald of the pleasures and pains of the human experience who maintains a delicate balance between speaking of universal emotions and experiencing them as an individual. Through several lyrical poetic forms that employ both figurative and literal language, in chapters 5-8, Hirsch examines poets who cipher and decipher what it means to be human.

In Chapter 5, Hirsch takes a close look at poetry as a place for rejoicing in ecstasy and passion. Hirsch asserts poetry allows for a freedom to explore sensuality and sexuality with “no governmental regulations, no religious strictures” as very often the

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