HOW TO READ A POEM AND FALL IN LOVE WITH POETRY

New York City, NY: Harcourt Brace & Company, 1999. First Edition. First Printing.. Hardcover. Fine/Fine Dust Jacket.. New York City, NY: Harcourt Brace & Company, 1999. Hardcover. Fine/Fine. First Edition/First Printing. 352 pages. Landmark collection of essays on subject. One of the best introductions to the art and achievement of poetry ever written in our time. The First Hardcover Edition. Precedes and should not be confused with all other subsequent editions. Published in a small and limited first print run as a hardcover original only. The First Edition is now scarce. Presents Edward Hirsch's "How To Read A Poem And Fall In Love With Poetry". His prose book on his poetic vocation. "Hirsch's guide to getting the most out of poetry is filled with inspiring examples and thousands of epigrams and allusions. Above all, he is intent on poetry's physical and emotional power. In chapters devoted to the lyric, the narrative, the poetry of sorrow, of ecstasy, of witness, Hirsch continually conveys the sheer ecstasy of this vital act of communication. Above all, there is the thrill of discovery as Hirsch offers up works by artists ranging from Anna Akhmatova to Walt Whitman, Elizabeth Bishop to Adam Zagajewski. I defy you not to fall in love with Nobel Laureate Wislawa Szymborska on the basis of 'The Joy of Writing', which begins: 'Why does this written doe bound through these written woods? / For a drink of written water from a spring / whose surface will xerox her soft muzzle? / Why does she lift her head; does she hear something? / Perched on four slim legs borrowed from the truth, / she pricks up her ears beneath my fingertips'. His introductions to Eastern European poets such as Jiri Orten, Attila Jozsef, and Miklos Radnoti will make you want to ferret out their hard-to-find work" (Kerry Fried). The appended Glossary and Extended Reading List are indispensable. An absolute "must-have" title for Edward Hirsch collectors. This copy is very prominently, neatly, and beautifully signed in black ink-pen on the title page by Edward Hirsch. It is signed directly on the page itself, not on a tipped-in page. This title is a late-modern classic. This is one of few such title-page signed copies of the First Hardcover Edition/First Printing still available online and is in especially fine condition: Clean, crisp, and bright. Please note: Copies available online have serious flaws, are in multiple subsequent printings, or are remainder-marked. This is surely an accessible and lovely alternative. A rare signed copy thus. "Earthly Measures" is regarded by Harold Bloom as one of the canonical works of the 20th century. One of the greatest poets of our time. A fine copy. (SEE ALSO OTHER EDWARD HIRSCH TITLES IN OUR CATALOG). ISBN 0151004196.