MacArthur Award-winning poet and critic Edward Hirsch considers how five 19th- and 20th-century poets treat luminous moments and visionary experiences. It is “Within a Moment: a Pulsation of the Artery,” William Blake writes, “when the Poets Work is Done.” Such unexpected breakthroughs—sudden and revelatory—arise out of commonplace experiences. How do different poets dramatize epiphanies that rupture time? And how do they integrate them into consciousness?
