Of the forty poets included in Edward Hirsch’s The Heart of American Poetry, eight are Jewish. At least two others had Jewish ancestors. Let’s say that means that about 20 percent of the poets included in a book of American poets are Jewish—much higher than the 2.4 percent of the total population of Americans who are Jews!
What can we learn by considering the work of Emma Lazarus, Muriel Rukeyser, Anthony Hecht, Allen Ginsberg, Philip Levine, Adrienne Rich, C. K. Williams, and Louise Glück (as well as, perhaps, Denise Levertov and W.C. Williams) in the context of the other poets who are presented as poets at the heart of American poetry? How do Jewish poets fit into the context of American poetry? How is American poetry shaped by the work of American Jewish poets? These are some of the questions we will consider in this two-part meeting of Yetzirah’s Book Club as we learn from Edward Hirsch, author of The Heart of American Poetry.