Description
By: Edward Hirsch
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.
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.
You may also like
熱銷中 Top Trending
Diary of a Young Girl, The (Paperback) (Anne Frank)
Sale priceHK$57.00
Regular priceHK$80.00
In stock
Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, The (Taylor Jenkins Reid)
Sale priceHK$75.00
Regular priceHK$117.00
In stock
Billy and the Mini Monsters #16 Monsters at Easter
Sale priceHK$46.00
Regular priceHK$84.00
In stock
Football Superstars - Mbappe Rules (Simon Mugford)
Sale priceHK$59.00
Regular priceHK$91.00
In stock
Percy Jackson and the Olympians: Wrath of the Triple Goddess International Edition
Sale priceHK$89.00
Regular priceHK$140.00
In stock
Gangsta Granny (Paperback)(David Walliams)(Tony Ross)
Sale priceHK$62.00
Regular priceHK$96.00
In stock
Billionaire Boy (Paperback) (David Walliams) (Tony Ross)
Sale priceHK$60.00
Regular priceHK$96.00
In stock
Bad Guys, The #14 in They're Bee-Hind You! (Aaron Blabey)
Sale priceHK$29.11
Regular priceHK$63.00
In stock
Mac B Kid Spy #03 Top Secret Smackdown (Paperback)(UK) (Mac Barnett)
Sale priceHK$59.00
Regular priceHK$84.00
In stock
Wings of Fire #01 The Dragonet Prophecy (Tui T. Sutherland)
Sale priceHK$62.00
Regular priceHK$72.00
In stock
Longman Weekly English Gramma Exercises (with Gramma Video)
Sale priceHK$71.00
Regular priceHK$83.00
In stock
World's Worst Children, The #1 (Black and White version)
Sale priceHK$63.00
Regular priceHK$104.00
In stock
The Great Detective Sherlock Holmes#1 The Phantom Cry
Sale priceHK$58.00
Regular priceHK$68.00
In stock