Lay Back the Darkness: Poems

by Edward Hirsch

Book Overview

Edward Hirsch's sixth collection is a descent into the darkness of middle age, narrated with exacting tenderness. He explores the boundaries of human fallibility both in candid personal poems, such as... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0375415211
• ISBN13: 9780375415210
• Release Date: March 2003
• Publisher: Knopf Publishing Group
• Length: 73 Pages
• Weight: 0.70 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 6.2" x 8.7"

Customer Reviews

Most of it is quite good

These poems run the gamut and are extremely allusive. They are book-ended by classically-driven pieces [i.e., the Odyssey] as well as Renaissance works [Dante]. Hirsch brings his own personal experiences to these renowned works and coopts their voices. The middle sections do not work as well, as they are "personal," or adopt the guise of so being; and they somehow do not hang together cleanly. There are some good pieces, however, like the concentration camp art of children, but the very confessional nature of them is not as strong as the less personal beginning and ending poems.