The Heart of American Poetry

We live in unsettled times. What is America and who are we as a people? How do we understand the dreams and betrayals that have shaped the American experience? For poet and critic Edward Hirsch, poetry opens up new ways of answering these questions, of reconnecting with one another and with whats best in us.

In this landmark new book from Library of America, Hirsch offers deeply personal readings of forty essential American poems we thought we knew--from Anne Bradstreets "The Author to Her Book" and Phillis Wheatleys "To S.M. a Young African Painter, on seeing his Works" to Garrett Hongos "Ancestral Graves, Kahuku" and Joy Harjos "Rabbit Is Up to Tricks"--exploring how these poems have sustained his own life and how they might uplift our diverse but divided nation.

"This is a personal book about American poetry," writes Hirsch, "but I hope it is more than a personal selection. I have chosen forty poems from our extensive archive and songbook that have been meaningful to me,
part of my affective life, my critical consideration, but I have also tried to be cognizant of the changing playbook in American poetry, which is not fixed but fluctuating, ever in flow, to pay attention to the wider consideration, the appreciable reach of our literature. This is a book of encounters and realizations."

Author: Edward Hirsch

Language: English

Binding: Hardcover

Pages: 480

Publisher: Library of America

Publication Date: 2022-04-19