100 Poems to Break Your Heart

Edward Hirsch

• Publisher: Ecco
• Year: 2024
• Print ISBN: 9780358699354
• eBook ISBN: 9780544931800
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Personal Success
• Index: Literature

"A really beautiful book" of poems that delve into—and help us transcend—suffering, loss, fear, and loneliness, by the author of How to Read a Poem ( The Boston Globe).
Implicit in poetry is the idea that we are enriched by heartbreaks, by the recognition and understanding of suffering—not just our own suffering but also the pain of others. We are not so much diminished as enlarged by grief, by our refusal to vanish, or to let others vanish, without leaving a record. And poets are people who are determined to leave a trace in words, to transform oceanic depths of feeling into art that speaks to others.
In  100 Poems to Break Your Heart, Edward Hirsch—prize-winning poet, critic, and author of How to Read a Poem—selects 100 poems, from the nineteenth century to the present, and illuminates them, unpacking context and references to help the reader fully experience the range of emotion and wisdom within them.
"Darkly illuminating." — Booklist (starred review)
"These 100 poems will indeed break hearts, but they also offer examples of resilience, the lasting impact of words, and a wisdom that a reader can return to and share." — New York Journal of Books

Credits

“The God Abandons Antony,” translated from Constantine Cavafy’s original Greek, from Collected Poems—Revised Edition, edited by George Savidis. Translation copyright © 1975, 1992 by Edmund Keeley and Philip Sherrard. Reprinted by permission of Princeton University Press.

“The Pretty Redhead,” translated from Guillaume Apollinaire’s original French, from Collected Poems. Translation copyright © 1971 by James Wright. Reprinted by permission of Wesleyan University Press.

“Song for a Dark Girl” from The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes, edited by Arnold Rampersad with David Roessel. Copyright © 1927 by The Estate of Langston Hughes. Used by permission of Harold Ober Associates and Alfred A. Knopf, an imprint of the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Random House LLC.

“Black Stone Lying on a White Stone,” translated from César Vallejo’s original Spanish, from Neruda and Vallejo: Selected Poems, edited by Robert Bly. Copyright © 1930 by César Vallejo. Translation copyright © 1971 by Robert Bly.

“I’m Going to Sleep,” translated from Alfonsina Storni’s original Spanish by Lauren Watel. Translation copyright © 2020 by Lauren Watel. Used by permission.

“To Julia de Burgos,” translated from Julia de Burgos’s original Spanish by Lauren Watel. Translation copyright © 2020 by Lauren Watel. Used by permission.

“In Memory of M. B.” from Poems of Akhmatova by Anna Akhmatova, translated by Stanley Kunitz with Max Hayward. Copyright © 1940 by Anna Akhmatova. Translation copyright © 1967, 1973 by Stanley Kunitz and Max Hayward. Used by permission of Darhansoff & Verrill Literary Agents and FTM Agency, Ltd.

“The Fifth Eclogue,” translated from Miklós Radnóti’s original Hungarian, from Clouded Sky. Copyright © 1943 by Miklós Radnóti. Translation copyright © 1972, 2003 by Mrs. Miklós Radnóti, Steven Polgar, Stephen Berg, and S. J. Marks. Used by permission of Sheep Meadow Press.

“Café” from New and Collected Poems: 1931–2001 by Czesław Miłosz. Copyright © 1945 by Czesław Miłosz. Used by permission of HarperCollins Publishers LLC.

“Merciful God” from Paper Bridges: Selected Poems of Kadya Molodowsky, translated by Kathryn Hellerstein. Translation copyright © 1999 by Kathryn Hellerstein. Reprinted by permission of Wayne State University Press.

“Shemà,” translated from Primo Levi’s original Italian, from Complete Works of Primo Levi, edited by Ann Goldstein. Copyright © 1976 by Primo Levi. Translation copyright © 2015 by Jonathan Galassi. Used by permission of Liveright Publishing Corporation.

“On Living,” translated from Nâzım Hikmet’s original Turkish, from Poems of Nâzım Hikmet. Copyright © 1948 by The Nâzım Hikmet Estate. Translation copyright © 1994, 2002 by Randy Blasing and Mutlu Konuk. Used with the permission of Persea Books and Vicki Satlow of The Agency srl on behalf of The Nâzım Hikmet Estate.

“Aspects of Robinson” from The Collected Poems of Weldon Kees, edited by Donald Justice. First appeared in The New Yorker. Copyright © 1948 by Weldon Kees. Used by permission of the University of Nebraska Press.

“The rites for Cousin Vit” from Annie Allenby Gwendolyn Brooks. Copyright © 1949 by Gwendolyn Brooks. Reprinted by consent of Brooks Permissions.

“Not Waving but Drowning” from Collected Poems of Stevie Smith by Stevie Smith. Copyright © 1957 by Stevie Smith. Reprinted by permission of New Directions Publishing Corp.

“In the Midst of Life,” translated from Tadeusz Różewicz’s original Polish, from The Survivors and Other Poems. Translation by Magnus J. Krynski and Robert A. Maguire copyright © 1976 by Princeton University Press. Reprinted by permission of Princeton University Press.

“On the road at night there stands the man” from Hovering at a Low Altitude: The Collected Poetry of Dahlia Ravikovitch, translated by Chana Bloch and Chana Kronfeld. Copyright © 1959 by Dahlia Ravikovitch. Translation copyright © 2009 by Chana Bloch and Chana Kronfeld. Used by permission of W. W. Norton and Company, The Estate of Dahlia Ravikovitch, and Hakibbutz Hameuchad Publishing House, Israel.

“Poem of the Gifts,” translated from Jorge Luis Borges’s original Spanish, from Selected Poems, edited by Alexander Coleman. Copyright © 1960, 1999 by Maria Kodama. Translation copyright © 1999 by Alastair Reid. Used by permission of Viking Books, an imprint of Penguin Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Random House LLC, The Colchie Agency, and The Wylie Agency LLC.

“In the Park” from Selected Poems by Gwen Harwood. First appeared in the Bulletin published under the pseudonym Walter Lehmann. Copyright © 1961 by Gwen Harwood. Used by permission of Penguin Random House Australia.

“The Whipping” from Collected Poems of Robert Hayden, edited by Frederick Glaysher. Copyright © 1962 by Robert Hayden. Used by permission of Liveright Publishing Corporation.

“Night Sweat” from Collected Poems by Robert Lowell. Copyright © 1964 by Robert Lowell. Used by permission of Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

“Wanting to Die” from Live or Die by Anne Sexton. First appeared in the Observer. Copyright © 1964 by Anne Sexton. Reprinted by permission of Sterling Lord Literistic, Inc.

“My Nightingale,” translated from Rose Ausländer’s original German, from After Every War: Twentieth-Century Women Poets. Copyright © 1965 by Rose Ausländer. Translation copyright © 2004 by Eavan Boland. Reprinted by permission of Princeton University Press.

“Next Day” from The Complete Poems by Randall Jarrell. First appeared in The New Yorker. Copyright © 1963 by Randall Jarrell. Used by permission of Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

“Montana Fifty Years Ago” from The Poems of J. V. Cunningham, edited by Timothy Steele. Copyright © 1967 by J. V. Cunningham. Reprinted by permission of Ohio University Press.

“For the Anniversary of My Death” by W. S. Merwin from The Essential W. S. Merwin, edited by Michael Wiegers. Copyright © 1967 by W. S. Merwin. Reprinted with the permission of The Permissions Company LLC on behalf of Copper Canyon Press and The Wylie Agency LLC.

“Poem” from Collected Poems of Muriel Rukeyser, edited by Janet E. Kaufman and Anne F. Herzog with Jan Heller Levi. Copyright © 1968 by Muriel Rukeyser. Reprinted by permission of the University of Pittsburgh Press.

“The Idea of Ancestry” from The Essential Etheridge Knight by Etheridge Knight. Copyright © 1968 by Etheridge Knight. Reprinted by permission of the University of Pittsburgh Press.

“Henry’s Understanding” from Collected Poems: 1937–1971 by John Berryman. First appeared in the Harvard Advocate. Copyright © 1969 by John Berryman. Used by permission of Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

“A Deathplace” from Night Music by L. E. Sissman. First appeared in Harper’s Magazine. Copyright © 1969 by L. E. Sissman. Reprinted by permission of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.

“They Feed They Lion” from New Selected Poems by Philip Levine. Copyright © 1968, 1972 by Philip Levine. Used by permission of Alfred A. Knopf, an imprint of the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Random House LLC.

“The Small Square,” translated from Sophia de Mello Breyner Andresen’s original Portuguese, from Log Book: Selected Poems. Copyright © 1972 by Sophia de Mello Breyner Andresen. Translation copyright © 1997 by Richard Zenith. Reprinted by permission of Sterling Lord Literistic, Inc. and S.P.A. (Sociedade Portuguesa de Autores).

“Under One Small Star,” translated from Wisława Szymborska’s original Polish, from Map: Collected and Last Poems. Copyright © 1972 by The Wisława Szymborska Foundation. Translation by Clare Cavanagh and Stanisław Barańczak copyright © 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Reprinted by permission of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.

“Degrees of Gray in Philipsburg” from Making Certain It Goes On: Collected Poems of Richard Hugo by Richard Hugo. Copyright © 1973 by Richard Hugo. Used by permission of W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.

“On This Side of the River” from New and Selected Poems by Stephen Berg. First appeared in American Review. Copyright © 1975 by Stephen Berg. Used by permission of Millie Lane-Berg.

“Aubade” from The Complete Poems of Philip Larkin, edited by Archie Burnett. First appeared in the Times Literary Supplement. Copyright © 1977 by Philip Larkin. Used by permission of Farrar, Straus and Giroux and Faber & Faber.

“Parents” from Effort at Speech: New and Selected Poems by William Meredith. First appeared in The New Yorker. Copyright © 1980 by William Meredith. Used by permission of TriQuarterly Books/Northwestern University Press.

“Essay” from Brothers, I Loved You All: Poems 1969–1977 by Hayden Carruth. Copyright © 1978 by Hayden Carruth. Used by permission of Sheep Meadow Press.

“Arches” from Collected Poems by James Schuyler. First appeared in the New York Review of Books. Copyright © 1978 by James Schuyler. Used by permission of Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

“Kindness” from Words Under Words: Selected Poems by Naomi Shihab Nye. Copyright © 1980 by Naomi Shihab Nye. Reprinted by permission of Far Corner Books.

“The Woman on the Bridge over the Chicago River” from The Ether Dome and Other Poems New and Selected (1979–1991) by Allen Grossman. Copyright © 1979 by Allen Grossman. Reprinted by permission of New Directions Publishing Corp.

“The Book of Yolek” from The Transparent Man by Anthony Hecht. First appeared in the New Statesman. Copyright © 1982 by Anthony Hecht. Used by permission of Alfred A. Knopf, an imprint of the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Random House LLC.

“Mr Cogito and the Imagination,” translated from Zbigniew Herbert’s original Polish, from The Collected Poems 1956–1998. Copyright © 1983 by The Estate of Zbigniew Herbert. Translation by Alissa Valles copyright ...

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Contents
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Epigraph
• Introduction
• WILLIAM WORDSWORTH: “Surprised by joy—impatient as the Wind” (1815, 1820)
• JOHN KEATS: “This living hand” (1819)
• JOHN CLARE: “I am” (c. 1847)
• ALFRED, LORD TENNYSON: In Memoriam, VII (c. 1848)
• GERARD MANLEY HOPKINS: “Thou art indeed just, Lord, if I contend” (1889)
• CONSTANTINE CAVAFY: “The God Abandons Antony” (1910)
• THOMAS HARDY: “The Voice” (1912)
• EDWARD THOMAS: “The Owl” (1915)
• GUILLAUME APOLLINAIRE: “The Pretty Redhead” (1918)
• EDNA ST. VINCENT MILLAY: “What lips my lips have kissed, and where, and why” (1920)
• LANGSTON HUGHES: “Song for a Dark Girl” (1927)
• CHARLOTTE MEW: “Rooms” (c. 1929)
• CÉSAR VALLEJO: “Black Stone Lying on a White Stone” (1930)
• ALFONSINA STORNI: “I’m Going to Sleep” (1938)
• JULIA DE BURGOS: “To Julia de Burgos” (1938)
• ANNA AKHMATOVA: “In Memory of M. B.” (1940)
• MIKLÓS RADNÓTI: “The Fifth Eclogue” (1943)
• CZESŁAW MIŁOSZ: “Café” (1944)
• KADYA MOLODOWSKY: “Merciful God” (1945)
• PRIMO LEVI: “Shemà” (1946)
• NÂZIM HIKMET: “On Living” (1948)
• WELDON KEES: “Aspects of Robinson” (1948)
• GWENDOLYN BROOKS: “The rites for Cousin Vit” (1949)
• STEVIE SMITH: “Not Waving but Drowning” (1953, 1957)
• TADEUSZ RÓŻEWICZ: “In the Midst of Life” (1955)
• DAHLIA RAVIKOVITCH: “On the road at night there stands the man” (1959)
• JORGE LUIS BORGES: “Poem of the Gifts” (1960)
• GWEN HARWOOD: “In the Park” (1961)
• ROBERT HAYDEN: “The Whipping” (1962)
• ROBERT LOWELL: “Night Sweat” (1963)
• ANNE SEXTON: “Wanting to Die” (1964)
• ROSE AUSLÄNDER: “My Nightingale” (1965)
• RANDALL JARRELL: “Next Day” (1965)
• J. V. CUNNINGHAM: “Montana Fifty Years Ago” (1967)
• W. S. MERWIN: “For the Anniversary of My Death” (1967)
• MURIEL RUKEYSER: “Poem” (1968)
• ETHERIDGE KNIGHT: “The Idea of Ancestry” (1968)
• JOHN BERRYMAN: “Henry’s Understanding” (1969)
• L. E. SISSMAN: “A Deathplace” (1969)
• PHILIP LEVINE: “They Feed They Lion” (1969)
• SOPHIA DE MELLO BREYNER ANDRESEN: “The Small Square” (1972)
• WISŁAWA SZYMBORSKA: “Under One Small Star” (1972)
• RICHARD HUGO: “Degrees of Gray in Philipsburg” (1973)
• STEPHEN BERG: “On This Side of the River” (1975)
• PHILIP LARKIN: “Aubade” (1977)
• WILLIAM MEREDITH: “Parents” (1978)
• HAYDEN CARRUTH: “Essay” (1978)
• JAMES SCHUYLER: “Arches” (1978)
• NAOMI SHIHAB NYE: “Kindness” (1978, 1994)
• ALLEN GROSSMAN: “The Woman on the Bridge over the Chicago River” (1979)
• ANTHONY HECHT: “The Book of Yolek” (1981)
• ZBIGNIEW HERBERT: “Mr Cogito and the Imagination” (1983)
• C. K. WILLIAMS: “From My Window” (1983)
• LOUISE GLÜCK: “Night Song” (1983)
• SHARON OLDS: “The Race” (1983)
• DONALD JUSTICE: “In Memory of the Unknown Poet, Robert Boardman Vaughn” (1984)
• GERALD STERN: “The Dancing” (1984)
• JOY HARJO: “For Anna Mae Pictou Aquash, Whose Spirit Is Present Here and in the Dappled Stars (for we remember the story and must tell it again so we may all live)” (1985)
• GARRETT HONGO: “Mendocino Rose” (1987)
• ADRIENNE RICH: “(Dedications)” (1990–91)
• THOM GUNN: “The Gas-poker” (1991)
• HEATHER MCHUGH: “What He Thought” (1991)
• LES MURRAY: “It Allows a Portrait in Line-Scan at Fifteen”
• THOMAS LUX: “The People of the Other Village” (1993)
• LINDA GREGERSON: “For the Taking” (1993)
• NICHOLAS CHRISTOPHER: “Terminus” (1993)
• MARIE HOWE: “What the Living Do” (1994)
• DUNYA MIKHAIL: “The War Works Hard” (1994)
• STANLEY KUNITZ: “Halley’s Comet” (1995)
• BRIGIT PEGEEN KELLY: “Song” (1995)
• ROSANNA WARREN: “Simile” (1996)
• FRANK BIDART: “In Memory of Joe Brainard” (1997)
• LUCILLE CLIFTON: “jasper texas 1998” (1998)
• CYNTHIA HUNTINGTON: “The Rapture” (2000)
• RICHARD HOWARD: “Elementary Principles at Seventy-Two” (2001)
• EAVAN BOLAND: “Quarantine” (2001)
• AGI MISHOL: “Woman Martyr” (2002)
• HARRYETTE MULLEN: “We Are Not Responsible” (2002)
• GALWAY KINNELL: “Shelley” (2004)
• VIJAY SESHADRI: “Aphasia” (2004)
• MARY SZYBIST: “On Wanting to Tell [ ] About a Girl Eating Fish Eyes” (2004)
• MARY OLIVER: “Lead” (2005)
• ANYA KRUGOVOY SILVER: “Persimmon” (2005)
• PATRICIA SMITH: “Ethel’s Sestina” (2006)
• CAROLYN CREEDON: “Woman, Mined” (2006)
• NATASHA TRETHEWEY: “Graveyard Blues” (2006)
• CAMILLE DUNGY: “Requiem” (2006)
• PETER EVERWINE: “Aubade in Autumn” (2007)
• TONY HOAGLAND: “Barton Springs” (2007)
• PHILIP SCHULTZ: “Failure” (2007)
• MICHAEL COLLIER: “An Individual History” (2007)
• LUCIA PERILLO: “The Second Slaughter” (2008)
• MICHAEL WATERS: “Old School” (2010)
• LUCIE BROCK-BROIDO: “Infinite Riches in the Smallest Room” (2013)
• YUSEF KOMUNYAKAA: “The African Burial Ground” (2014)
• KATE DANIELS: “The Addict’s Mother: Birth Story” (2014–15)
• AFAA MICHAEL WEAVER: “Spirit Boxing” (2015)
• VICTORIA CHANG: “Obit [The Blue Dress]” (2016)
• TOI DERRICOTTE: “Pantoum for the Broken” (2017)
• MEENA ALEXANDER: “Krishna, 3:29 A.M.” (2018)
• Acknowledgments
• Credits
• About the Author
• Connect on Social Media