Lay Back the Darkness

Title	Lay Back the Darkness
Author	Edward Hirsch
Call Number	PS3558.I64 L39 2004
Location	2nd Floor Humanities
Rating	Somewhat Recommended
Book Review	Hirsch handles his themes as elegantly as he does his lines. There’s passion and momentum by a deft, graceful hand. The poems are engaging and complex, however; the beauty and complexity tended to keep me at the feeling of an arm’s distance. The vulnerability was certainly there, particularly as the speaker goes into the relationship with his father and religion, though said vulnerability seemed shadowed, or rather, skillfully scaffolder by artful craft. It was an interesting experience having something revealed, and gone (but not forever) with the turning of a corner, to appear around another corner, when you might not expect it. Stand out poems include “Dates,” “Self-Portrait as Eurydice, III,” and “The Widening Sky.”
Submitted By	David Krausman
Department or Major	Wilkinson College
Status	Staff
Chapman Email	krausman@chapman.edu