100 Poems To Break Your Heart

Edward Hirsch is a poet himself, and the loss of his son in 2011 informed the work that led to 100 Poems to Break Your Heart. The book is what the title says. A hundred poems, each followed by a short essay from Hirsch about why the poem works, what tradition it sits in, and what it might offer a reader in grief.

The selection ranges widely. Sappho, Tu Fu, Dickinson, Mistral, Levertov, Brooks, and many less famous poets get included. Hirsch is good at giving context without overshadowing the poem itself.

This isn’t a depressing book despite the title. It’s a book that takes grief seriously enough to give it real attention.

For readers who keep poetry by their bed, or who turn to poems during hard seasons, this is one of the strongest curated collections of recent years. Hirsch’s earlier book How to Read a Poem and Fall in Love With Poetry is also worth tracking down.