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Gabriel
Gabriel: A Poem | Edward Hirsch
3 posts | 4 read | 1 to read
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. From the Hardcover edition.
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g0ldengalle0n
Gabriel: A Poem | Edward Hirsch
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Pickpick

A very powerful story about the death of the author‘s son. Told as a narrative poem with no punctuation, it‘s full of literary and religious references. Not a book to cheer you up, but definitely worth the read.

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Mc_cart_ny
Gabriel: A Poem | Edward Hirsch
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I don't really read #poetry so I think this is all I have. I actually haven't read Gabriel yet, I believe it's about the death of the author's son. It's supposed to be incredibly good and incredibly sad so I keep putting it off.
#SeasonsReadings2016

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Elise.Ozarowski
Gabriel: A Poem | Edward Hirsch
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So good. So sad. I would recommend giving yourself a couple hours to read this one in a single sitting because the writing begs for it.