"The line is a way of thinking in poetry, by poetry..it paces the poem."

Edward Hirsch Literature See all quotes by Edward Hirsch →

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“Inspiration is inbreathing, indwelling, poetry can never be entirely willed. It may be true a poet is given only a single line but that line is a gift from the unconscious, intution , a perception.”

“Poetry is a form of necessary speech.”

“The poem is an original and unique creation, but it is reading and recitation: participation.”

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“Extract links Hirsch's 'Poets Glossary'”

“For most of history poetry has been an oral art, it retains the vestiges of orality, an experience embedded in the sensuality of sounds.”

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