FFFFFalling with Poetry: The Centrifugal Classroom

Abstract

I want to start by quoting the opening passage of a recent book by Edward Hirsch, author of six collections of poetry and recipient of numerous prestigious awards including The National Book Critics Circle Award and a MacArthur Fellowship. The book is titled How to Read a Poem and Fall in Love with Poetry, and its first chapter begins:

Read these poems to yourself in the middle of the night. Turn on a single lamp and read them while you’re alone in an otherwise dark room or while someone else sleeps next to you … Say them over to yourself in a place where silence reigns and the din of the culture—the constant buzzing noise that surrounds us—has momentarily stopped. These poems have come from a great distance to find you.¹