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The poem is an act beyond paraphrase because what is being said is always inseparable from the way it is being said.

— Edward Hirsch How to Read a Poem And Fall in Love with Poetry (1998)

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More quotes by Edward Hirsch

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

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

How to Read a Poem And Fall in Love with Poetry (1998)

I was never able to pray
but let me inscribe my name
in the book of waves.

Poetry is a voicing, a calling forth, words waiting to be vocalized.

How to Read a Poem And Fall in Love with Poetry (1998)

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

How to Read a Poem And Fall in Love with Poetry (1998)

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Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Edward Hirsch (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.