Two Secrets: On Poetry's Inward And Outward Looking By Hirshfield

Chapter 6 of Hirshfield’s Nine Gates entitled “Two Secrets: On Poetry’s Inward and Outward Looking” talks of the subjective, reflective, and objective modes of poetry. Hirshfield provides examples of all three modes and the risks that they carry, such as a subjective poem: “The lapse into solipsism, pitfall of the worst Romantic poems, continues to throw a sentimental fog over many people’s idea of what poetry is." Hirshfield envisions a hierarchy, with the subjective voice being more immature and the objective voice being the wisest. She relates the wise, objective voice to the Buddha, who’s first words after enlightenment were, “Now everything and I awaken.” Hirshfield goes on to say that “Seeing with clarity is not a solitary task, but involves
I don’t know if I agree with Hirshfield on the hierarchy of the different modes of poetry. Objectivity is closer to godliness but farther away from our ego selves, the part of us that is drawn to poetry. People read poetry to find meaning. The very act of searching for meaning in the outer world might seem self-centered and immature, like subjective poetry, but is wholly human. Solipsism-the idea that the self is all that can be known to exist-cannot be brushed aside as the pitfall of poetry. One’s belief and questioning of their own self is the only entrance into
This description illustrates the way in which one must choose not to ignore their ego center but instead to study it, watch it until it becomes something separate from the self. This goes along with many forms of meditation, which encourage the individual not to resist any thoughts, but instead to observe their thoughts as they pass through the mind. This allows the individual to detach from the debilitating thoughts that chain them to a single identity so that they are able to then become ten thousand (plus) things.
According to Hirschfield, very few poems are written in this objective, third form. This seems rational, since poems set in the state of transcendence would be void of mystery-life’s greatest questions would be solved and only what was true and real would remain. I’d imagine the need for poetry (or any form of storytelling) would cease to exist if the whole world reached the sort of enlightenment that Buddha claimed to have reached. So, it makes sense that there would not be very many poems written without the presence of the