Starred review from March 1, 2014
Offering definitions, a discussion of poetic techniques, and an unalloyed spiritual quality to his work, Hirsch's (chancellor, Academy of American Poets; How To Read a Poem) alphabetically arranged glossary includes historical explanations, quotes, interpretative material, usage in various languages, and references to additional terms for even more clarification. The author's command of English is highlighted as he explains the meaning and employment of poetical terms and leads the reader to a deeper understanding of poetry. For example, in the entry on "Epic," Hirsch defines the term, names and comments on the earliest such works, notes characteristics of epic poetry, and speaks about the great epic poems from all corners of the world. VERDICT This compilation of stimulating information and of beautiful writing by a master of expression is for all who love language, not just poets.--M.S. Lary, San Bernardino, CA
Copyright 2014 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
Starred review from March 15, 2014
A glossary is useful, welcome, sometimes fun, but rarely, if ever, a catalyst for astonishment. Leave it to revered poet, poetry apostle, and glossator extraordinaire Hirsch (The Living Fire, 2010) to turn this humble resource into a vibrant, polyglot, world-circling, century-spanning, mind-expanding work of profound scholarship and literary art. Hirsch demonstrated his glossarial gift in his best-selling How to Read a Poem (1999), launching the passionate and sustained immersion in world poetry's vocabulary, genres, and theory brought to fruition here. Lush with poem excerpts and poet profiles, the longer entries on such subjects as the epic and free verse possess the contextual richness and narrative drive of master lectures, while the more concise definitions are models of clarification. The result is a uniquely vital, cogent, conversational, and inclusive inquiry into the craft, philosophical concerns, and emotional intensity that gave rise to oral and written traditions, diverse movements, and many small devices and large mysteries. Hirsch defines any term in English you can think of and many more, along with ghinnawa, a form of Bedouin folk poetry; the Sanskrit term rasa, denoting the soul of poetry; and shan-shui, China's rivers-and-mountain verse. A thrilling repertoire of poetic secrets, this radiant compendium is shaped by Hirsch's abiding gratitude for the demands and power, illumination, and solace of poetry, a human fundamental. (Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)