Skip to content

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

— Edward Hirsch

Another quote →

Topics

Books

More quotes by Edward Hirsch

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

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

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

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)

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)

All Edward Hirsch quotes →

You may also like

Reading maketh a full man; conference a ready man; and writing an exact man.

Francis Bacon Meditationes sacræ (1597)

It is not in the books of the Philosophers, but in the religious symbolism of the Ancients, that we must look for the footprints of Science, and re-discover the Mysteries of Knowledge.

Albert Pike Morals and Dogma of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry (1871)

There is more than one way to burn a book. And the world is full of people running about with lit matches.

Ray Bradbury Fahrenheit 451 (1953)

People say that life is the thing, but I prefer reading.

Logan Pearsall Smith Afterthoughts (1931)

Attribution

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.