I ended up DNFing this book, because I didn't expect it to be so heavy on literary analysis. Am giving 5 stars because the analysis is very well done and this would be a great read for someone who likes to study poetry intensely.

@Thanks NetGalley for giving me the access to read this wonderful story. It was such an emotional journey. I loved every line of this book. I give 5 stars to this wonderful book

So much nostalgia and some of my favorites made the cut! Thank you NetGalley for this gift of poetry! Feeling all the feels!

This book goes through many of the worlds most famous poets and their poetry. Though a little academic in terms of writing style, the sources and resources are well informed and provide solid information. Not my favorite book about poetry, but the writing style is done well and keeps things interesting.

100 Poems to Break Your Heart  is a collection of different poems by a large variety of different poets.

I want to begin this review by explaining that this collection isn't what I thought it would be. When I first requested this on Netgalley, I thought it was a collection of Hirsch's own works. Instead, Hirsch explains his perspective on each of the 100 poems, detailing his own interpretations. Personally, I like to make up my own interpretation rather than having someone else tell me what to think.

If you like modern poetry and critical reading, then this book is for you.

The poems were fine.  I liked the selection that they included in this anthology.  The explanations did get a little tedious after a while, but I found myself skipping some and reading others.

Thank you so much to NetGalley for the arc.  This book is 100% what the title says.  Its 100 poems to break your heart, but not always in a bad way.  Its a collection of some of the most heartbreaking poems around.

I didn't realize when I requested this book that it was not just a compilation of poems, but also close readings of the poems that explained just why they would "break your heart". For me, some of these worked better than others, and by the time I had reached the end of the book, I was frankly pretty tired of the commentary and just wanted to read the poetry. I think the poetry selections were somewhat uneven--the Sharon Olds poem, for example, would have been better replaced with "I Go Back to May 1937" and some of the later contemporary poetry, I didn't find "heartbreaking" at all. I guess I was also expecting more older poetry--I think the exclusion of John Donne here is particularly egregious--so I was a little disappointed at how heavily contemporary this collection leaned. I definitely am glad I read this but the marketing is somewhat misleading and I feel like the commentary could definitely use some jazzing up.

I expected 100 Poems to Break Your Heart to be a collection of poems, but this book also gives information on how each poem is written. I get that some readers want to interpret the poetry by themselves, but I thought it was quite interesting to read the analysis and backstory.

I received an advanced copy of the book 100 Poems to Break Your Heart by Edward Hirsch via NetGalley, and here is my honest review in return!

This book centers around the idea that although reading about others’ pain and loss is often very heartbreaking, it also makes you feel “less alone and more connected.” Edward Hirsch has put together a collection of poems, mostly translated poems from the 19-21st centuries, that are associated with sadness, sorrow, loss, etc.

I had never read translated poetry before, perhaps because I thought poetry could not be translated properly. Hirsch acknowledges that poems lose something of their nature during translation, but he suggests that these poems “add to the sum of our human experience,” and thus reading them, even if in translation, is worth it. I agree.

One thing that I really liked about this book was its format, but I am aware that although this was a positive for me, it could be a negative for a lot of people. Each poem is accompanied by a description of its historical context, the poet’s background, and a mini analysis. Hirsch leads you through almost each line of the poem, helping you understand the bigger picture by giving you information about certain events that took place in the world, or in the poet’s life, when the poem was written. I am not an advanced poetry reader, and I’m usually too lazy to look up information about the poems I read unless I really, really like them. So the format of this book was super helpful to me! I had such easy access to resources; everything I needed was in one page! It also helped me develop my poetry analysis skills, because in addition to providing context, Hirsch also analyzes the poems for you, and you get a good sense of how to break down the poems etc. Now again, I enjoyed this because I’m not an advanced poetry reader, and I don’t know a lot about poem analysis besides the basic stuff. Obviously if you are a pro in poetry interpretation/analysis, the explanations in this book may seem too simple or limiting to you.

I read some reviews which criticized the book for “forcing” them to interpret poems in one single way. I understand that some people may enjoy searching for various possible meanings in poems, and coming up with different interpretations; if you are one of these people, this book might not be for you. I personally like to have answers; I like interpreting poems, but I also want to know what the most likely interpretation is (e.g. what the poet was ACTUALLY thinking about). Since Hirsch makes his interpretations based mostly on historical facts, I like to have a safe interpretation that I know is “most probably” the truth. 

These are my personal preferences, I totally understand people who think otherwise. But just keep in mind that the aim of this book is to investigate the heartbreaking nature of certain poems, not to serve as the perfect illustration of how poetry should be handled… So for newbie poetry readers, this book will be a great tool! But more advanced poetry readers or people who like to have their imagination go wild while reading poetry will not have such a positive experience with this.

One thing I should add is that I thought this book was too long. Of course, the more the merrier, and I appreciate the author’s efforts in finding and putting together so many great poems. But I believe that poetry is something to cherish from time to time, it’s not enjoyable to sit down and read poetry like reading a novel. The background info/description bits of the book dilute the poetry a little bit, so it is more bearable, but I still found it difficult to finish the book after a certain point, and found myself skipping some poems that didn’t seem necessarily interesting to me.

I received a digital copy of this book from NetGalley, which really affected my reading experience negatively. I always prefer physical books, but with this book I just NEEDED a physical copy. I would have loved to highlight and take notes on the margins, hold the book in my hand etc. It would have made such an emotional book much better. So I actually think I might get a physical copy once the book gets published. If the publishers are reading this: please send me a free copy :) Thanks!

Overall, if you’re new to poetry, read this! If not, well… You can take your chances.

Thank you Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing and Netgalley for sending me a copy of 100 Poems to Break Your Heart by Edward Hirsch. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Well let's dive right in. 

Going into the book I was expecting a collection of poetry and as a seasoned veteran of books and poems breaking my heart I was interested in what was in store. In my opinion, the sypnosis is a bit misleading as the book more revolves around the factual depiction of the poems in question rather than the emotions surrounding them. I think definitely if you are very interested in analysis and knowing the backstories then this is a great book for you! I enjoyed some parts and the insight into the pieces but found myself wanting to draw my own interpretations more. I truly believe with a different sypnosis / summary, this book could reach a much more desired audience and go further in an educational and analyzing sense. A wide range of content was talked about which was appreciated as it covered a big time span and really gets you to see the evolution of poetry (which is something that interests me). Overall, a solid analytical book and a very pretty abstracted cover as well.

A very interesting book, however it was not what I expected. I thought it would be just a collection of poems, but it ended up being a book that teaches literary structure classes on how each poem was written ...

The reading was heavy and I couldn't finish it, since it wasn't what I was expecting from the beginning.

At times I thought I needed to have knowledge of grammar and poetry writing and its structures.

Thank you to NetGalley for sending me an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review. 

As someone who deeply enjoys poetry and it’s hidden messages / meaning behind each piece, I thought I would really enjoy this collection. I’m sure other readers may enjoy it, but it personally wasn’t something I was interested in once I started reading the first few pages. This book seems to focus more on “this is exactly what this poet meant when he wrote this poem” rather than just having the poems there for each reader to interpret themselves. It wasn’t a book that could keep my attention and I wasn’t able to get past the first few pages.

I thought this collection was just superb. The poems were a wonderful mix of those I have read before and some that were new to me. Nonetheless, each and every piece of work that I read, had the immense power to transport me and I was boundless in the sphere of time in this poetry. You don't even need to think twice. Pick it up!

Hirsch's addition and his splendid illustration via words was just the cherry on top. It made everything all the better. This particular aspect is especially great for beginners!

Edward Hirsch collected 100 of the most dramatic poems with the theme of heartbreak. These poems guide and make the reader feel less alone during the journey of sadness and grief.

** A copy of 100 Poems to Break Your Heart was provided by the publisher and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review **

Powerful and beautiful collection of poetry. Reading this collection evokes a lot of emotion: grief, sadness, resilience, acceptance, closure and love. Nothing short of a gut punch!

This collection of moving poems studies traces left by heartbreak from the last 200 years of poets: sad for one reason or another, over the same things that bring us sorrow today. Can poetry make us feel less alone in the midst of a broken heart? Through each of the 100 selected poems’ analysis and backstory, we learn what inspired the original work and how much our pain has in common. I like that small, intriguing excerpts of each poem are featured, but I wish I could read the entire poem first before the intense breakdown of it. And, while way more literary than I expected from the title and cover, and less emotional and more analytical than I thought it would be: this book would be perfect for a deep dive into each classic work captured in beautiful prose, and it’s analytical enough that you won’t be left devastated by each one.

The premise of this poetry collection intrigued me. Heartbreak (in all its forms) is a prevalent theme in poetry across time and space, so I wanted to see what Hirsch plans to do with a hundred poems on this theme. I admit, I wasn't expecting to see his analysis for these poems; some of which I found intriguing, while others weren't as engaging. I did appreciate some of the historical context that led to these poems.

Some poems I already knew from my own studies and readings, but made for a nice revisit (and also compare/contrast Hirsch's own interpretation to mine). Others were new to me, and some of them piqued my interest to learn more about that poet's oeuvre. And I think for anyone who picks up 100 POEMS TO BREAK YOUR HEART, you'll find that the poems themselves are a good jumping point into other works. Your mileage will certainly vary depending on how you feel about others' analyses.

My greatest criticism about this collection is the lack of diversity, which could have been remedied with more research (which Hirsch clearly is not incapable of). The overwhelming majority of these poets were white Europeans (primarily English) and Americans. In addition, the vast majority of them were men. It's not until the 10th poem that we hear from a female poet (Edna St. Vincent Millay), the 11th poet to hear from a nonwhite poet (Langston Hughes), and the first non-European/-American poet didn't come in until 13th poet (Cesar Vallejo). Very very few of them were queer. Going backwards, the diversity was more apparent (e.g., 5/10 last poets were BIPOC, three being women of color), but the last ten poets were all American. The very poems by those who do not fall into at least one of these categories clearly demonstrate their capacity to write equally (if not, more) heartbreaking poems. It would have been nice if Hirsch could have drawn more attention to such poems.

I loved the detailed explanation and how the poems were chosen carefully. The overall book is quite worth the read and the book is a total page turner.

I was hoping the explanations to be precise and brief. It was an okay-ish read.

On a positive note, the book definitely covered some great poetry. Appreciate the attempt.