Given Sugar, Given Salt

"[A] poet who consistently aims high and, more often than we have a right to expect, achieves that rare combination of qualities Rilke loved in the Psalms, of 'seriousness and weigh and eternity.' Hershfield's tone refreshingly avoids the clipped diction that hurries so many of our period poems along to their well-deserved oblivion. Working against the grain of a society in which too often even the poets are slaves to speed, she carefully paces her poems to take whatever time they need, so that their 'guest' may comfortably and thoroughly occupy them. The best of them will remain guests in our cultural memory a long time."Hirshfield, Jane is the author of 'Given Sugar, Given Salt' with ISBN 9780060959012 and ISBN 0060959010.