In Poet's Choice, the gifted poet and critic Edward Hirsch offers a new way to look at the world through the art of poetry. The author of the bestselling How to Read a Poem collects and reflects on the work of more than 130 poets—from Asia and the Middle East to Europe and America, from ancient times to the present—and demonstrates how poetry answers the challenge of finding meaning in the midst of suffering. Rich, relevant, always inviting, and suffused with Hirsch’s deep sensitivity to the nuances of language, Poet’s Choice deftly illustrates how poems need readers to experience them and how individuals can appreciate the full beauty of life through poetry.

“Poetry is a means of exchange,” Hirsch writes. “A form of reciprocity, a magic to be shared, a gift. There has never been a civilization without it.” Hirsch’s knowledge and enthusiasm for poetry uplifts and sustains his readers. “I have lived with these poems until they have become part of the air that I breathe. I hope they will become part of the reader’s world too.”



Edward Hirsch is the author of six books of poems and three books of prose, including the national bestseller How to Read a Poem. He has received the National Book Critics Circle Award, the Prix de Rome, and a MacArthur Fellowship, and is president of the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. He lives in New York.