Gabriel: A Poem - Hardcover
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.
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.
"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.
About the Author:
Edward Hirsch has published eight books of poetry and five books of prose. He lives in Brooklyn, New York.
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.:
The population of his feelings
Could not be governed
By the authorities
He had reasons why
Reason disobeyed him
And voted him out of office
Anxiety
His constant companion
Made it difficult to rest
Unruly party of one
Forget about truces or compromises
The barricades will be stormed
Every day was an emergency
Every day called for another emergency
Meeting of the cabinet
In his country
There were scenes
Of spectacular carnage
Hurricanes welcomed him
He adored typhoons and tornadoes
Furies unleashed
Houses lifted up
And carried to the sea
Uncontained uncontainable
Unbolt the doors
Fling open the gates
Here he comes
Chaotic wind of the gods
He was trouble
But he was our trouble
Could not be governed
By the authorities
He had reasons why
Reason disobeyed him
And voted him out of office
Anxiety
His constant companion
Made it difficult to rest
Unruly party of one
Forget about truces or compromises
The barricades will be stormed
Every day was an emergency
Every day called for another emergency
Meeting of the cabinet
In his country
There were scenes
Of spectacular carnage
Hurricanes welcomed him
He adored typhoons and tornadoes
Furies unleashed
Houses lifted up
And carried to the sea
Uncontained uncontainable
Unbolt the doors
Fling open the gates
Here he comes
Chaotic wind of the gods
He was trouble
But he was our trouble
"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.
- PublisherKnopf
- Publication date2014
- ISBN 10 038535357X
- ISBN 13 9780385353571
- BindingHardcover
- Number of pages96
- Rating
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