Ten Windows

January 19, 2015
Hirshfield, a poet and Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets, ponders the value and function of poetry in 10 insightful essays. Following up on her earlier nonfiction book Nine Gates, Hirshfield delves into various works written across multiple styles and centuries. She begins with a perceptive lesson about the way a poet—and a poem—sees the world, later exploring the theme of “the hidden,” referring to both subterranean layers of meaning in a piece of writing and the protective concealments common in nature, in which, according to a biologist, “hiddenness is the default.” Elsewhere, Hirshfield shows how asking questions about poems, from Basho’s haiku to Walt Whitman’s American epics, can lead to answers about ourselves. In this vein, she tackles “American-ness” as it’s manifested in modern American poetry, concluding that our “culture created by immigration, by mobility of psyche and of body.” Hirshfield writes with a poet’s voice and imparts wisdom on nearly every page. In a particularly lucid selection, “Poetry and the Constellation of Surprise,” she explains how important it is that poetry transcend reason, because reason “cannot and does not encompass the whole of life.” Hirshfield’s in-depth tour of poetry and art leaves a lasting impression.

Starred review from February 15, 2015

In 20 or 30 years, this book may be remembered as one of the great common-readers on the pleasures of poetry. Hirshfield (Come, Thief; After) is not only a sensitive reader, but a pleasure to read. Her approach to poetry is exhilarating. Reading her is reminiscent of the joy found among the insights and illuminations of Hugh Kenner's best work. And, like Kenner's best work, Hirshfield never pontificates, she simply opens windows. The ten chapters explore the workings of poetry in general but center on a small gathering of poets: Gerard Manley Hopkins, Matsuo Basho, C.P. Cavafy, Czeslaw Milosz, Wislawa Szymborska, Elizabeth Bishop, and Emily Dickinson, among others. Not an overview, and not simply a collection of random essays, this book gives one the sensation that poetry is truly a force that could change the world. One of the most beautiful passages is a description of snow taken from a journal of Hopkins. Hirshfield gently juxtaposes that lyrical meditation on a snowy vista with a handful of pictures from Hopkins's poetry and by doing so gently opens readers' eyes to the distinction between prose and poetry. In this luminous moment, she models not only great critical insight but perfect pedagogical aplomb. Another notable passage grapples with the wonders of Bishop's "The Map." VERDICT Regardless of future reputation, this thrilling work of immense value is truly an important book on one of the most important subjects: poetry. However, like a strong drink (or a great poem) it probably isn't to be taken in a single gulp. It may even seem a little intoxicating, but drink. [See Prepub Alert, 9/29/14.]--Herman Sutter, St. Agnes Acad., Houston

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Starred review from March 15, 2015
Hirshfield's previous prose collection, Nine Gates (1997), is treasured for its cogent definition and explication of poetry. In Ten Windows: How Great Poems Transform the World, she celebrates poetry's breathing aliveness and how it frees us from rigid, limited viewpoints and vitalizes and expands our capacity for accurate knowing. She identifies poetry's windows changes in direction, modulation, surprising twists, daring leapsand explains how they open the reader to an increase of meaning, feeling, and being. With precision and passion, Hirshfield elucidates poetry's musical shapeliness, creative intention, embrace of uncertainty, and how poetry engenders a profound unlatching. She draws stirring examples from Shakespeare, Hopkins, Whitman, Auden, Bishop, Milosz, Brooks, and Komunyakaa and illuminates the power of haiku in her affecting in-depth profile of the Japanese poet Basho. Hirshfield writes brilliantly of paradox in poetry, of what poets and stand-up comics have in common, and how poetry counters isolation and meaninglessness. The profound pleasure Hirshfield takes in delineating poetry's efficacy makes for a beautifully enlightening volume.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)