Gabriel: A Poem

Gabriel: A Poem - Paperback

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Gabriel: A Poem
  • Gabriel: A Poem
Gabriel: A Poem - Paperback

Gabriel: A Poem - Paperback

by Edward Hirsch
$20.00
$20.00

Book Overview

by Edward Hirsch (Author)

Longlisted for the 2014 National Book Award

Never has there been a book of poems quite like Gabriel, in which a short life, a bewildering death, and the unanswerable sorrow of a father come together in such a sustained elegy. This unabashed sequence speaks directly from Hirsch's heart to our own, without sentimentality. From its opening lines--"The funeral director opened the coffin / And there he was alone / From the waist up"--Hirsch's account is poignantly direct and open to the strange vicissitudes and tricks of grief. In propulsive three-line stanzas, he tells the story of how a once unstoppable child, who suffered from various developmental disorders, turned into an irreverent young adult, funny, rebellious, impulsive. Hirsch mixes his tale of Gabriel with the stories of other poets through the centuries who have also lost children, and expresses his feelings through theirs. His landmark poem enters the broad stream of human grief and raises in us the strange hope, even consolation, that we find in the writer's act of witnessing and transformation. It will be read and reread.

Author Biography

Edward Hirsch has published eight books of poetry and five books of prose. He lives in Brooklyn, New York.

Number of Pages: 96
Dimensions: 0.4 x 8.8 x 5.9 IN
Publication Date: March 01, 2016
ISBN9780804172875
Author Edward Hirsch
PublisherKnopf Doubleday Publishing Group
GenreLiterature
FormatPaperback
PublishedMarch 2016
LanguageENG- English
Pages96
Weight1.0 lb
Target AudienceAdults
Print SizeStandard Print

Related Subjects

Nonfiction Poetry

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More by Edward Hirsch

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How to Read a Poem: And Fall in Love with Poetry - Paperback

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About Edward Hirsch

EDWARD HIRSCH, a Chicago native and MacArthur Fellow, has published ten books of poetry, including The Living Fire New and Selected Poems and Gabriel A Poem, a book-length elegy for his son. He has also published eight books of prose, among them How to Read a Poem And Fall in Love with Poetry, a national bestseller, and 100 Poems to Break Your Heart. He has received numerous prizes, including the National Book Critics Circle Award and the National Jewish Book Award. He taught at Wayne State University and the University of Houston. Since 2003, Hirsch has been president of the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. He lives in Brooklyn.

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