100 of the most moving and inspiring poems of the last 200 years from around the world, a collection that will comfort and enthrall anyone trapped by grief or loneliness, selected by the award-winning, best-selling, and beloved author of How to Read a Poem 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...

"In celebration of Library of America's 40th anniversary, Edward Hirsch offers deeply personal readings of forty essential American poems, ranging from Anne Bradstreet's "The Author to Her Book" and Phillis Wheatley's "To S.M., a Young African Painter, on Seeing His Works" to Garrett Hongo's "Ancestral Graves, Kahuku" and Joy Harjo's "Rabbit Is Up to Tricks" to explore how these poems have shaped his own life and how they might uplift our life as...