Customer Reviews

On Love: Poems

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I cannot fathom why someone gave this book one star and I must admit that this review is somewhat of a reaction to that.

I have read a lot of contemporary poetry, and often I find that authors become caught up in personal minutiae that detract from rather than add to the progression of thought and feeling throughout their collections. Hirsch avoids that with a pared down style that makes every word add to a building of depth and feeling.

"Ocean of Grass," for example, is a beautiful villanelle that avoids the trite romanticizing of prairie life and shows hwo harsh life was without succumbing to stereotypes of grizzled sttlers. Hirsch consistently uses forms to enhance the poetry rather than forcing poems into forms.

As a student, I have to make careful choices about what books to buy on my limited budget. When considering what to buy I can only afford to buy the books that have lines going through my head all day until I have to look at the poem and marvel over it some more. On Love is one of those books and a worthy addition to any library.

I must politely disagree with my fellow readers. I enjoyed Edward Hirsch's new book, On Love, completely. This poet, Edward Hirsch, has continued, unabatedly, to define successfully what it means to be human in an often inhumane world. If not for any other reason, I find it important to read his poems for this very reason-- for finding such wisdom has become rare, indeed. And in this collection of poems, as were present in his other books, there are moments of undeniable beauty. I was left speechless by his poem for Amy Clampitt, entitled Iowa Flora, and the poem Blue Hydrangea, among others. I believe this collection of poems to complement his ever-growing and ambitious oeuvre. I would suggest this book to any friend who was interested in reading great poetry in a time when great poetry is more harder to find than ever.

It's apparent that some people find the "Lectures on Love" series of poems forced and prentious. I don't agree that these poems "sound like Hirsch"; instead, I find myself astonished at how varied the voices are-- in addition, I think that Hirsch remains true to the voices of the characters/writers he inhabits. (This is particularly true of the Baudelaire poem.) But the most impressive aspect of these poems in their formal integrity-- and they are very difficult and orginal forms that Hirsch employs! Also, the poem "The Painting of Pan" is fabulous-- it is one of the most unsettlingly sensual poems I've ever read. Check it out.

Edward Hirsch, once a better than average middle-voiced poet, has gone terribly wrong with "On Love." The lectures on love in the voices of the famous dead lie dead on the page, victims of their own grandstanding. (And I must say that the villanelle in the first section of the book is one of the clumsiest in recent memory.) No amount of complicated forms and co-opted voices can disguise that this book is misguided and flawed.

I am sorry, but I cannot agree with the person from Houston (Hirsch's hometown). This book is pretty bad. The scheme of the book is forced, and the lecture series "on love" is just awful. All the famous people dredged up from the past sound like caricatures or like Hirsch. Overly academic and many times trite, this book is an example of how one's reputation can sometimes land you a book contract. If this book weren't written by Edward Hirsch, it wouldn't have been published, much less by Alfred Knopf.

A guy fell in love with me. I sort of liked him. He gave me this book because he figured a poet like myself would enjoy it. And I did enjoy some of it, but not very much of it. The poor guy, he should've given me something else--some Yeats or Shelley instead. After this read, he didn't stand a chance. In all fairness, Hirsch is a good poet on most days, but this collection fell way flat for me. He should stick to the stuff he knows best, rather than trying to make an obvious seller for Valentine's Day.

How this is supposed to be the pinnacle of contemporary poetry is beyond me. And this is what gets someone a genius grant? This book is weak and not worth the money. Check it out at the library if you are interested.