Poem-A-Day: Amour Honestus by Edward Hirsch

October 15, 2013 Amour Honestus by Edward Hirsch     The nights were long and cold and bittersweet,  And he made a song for the hell of it.  She stood by the window, a heavenly light  Who created havoc for the hell of it.  He used to fondle every skirt in sight, Then he fell in love--that's the hell of it. Now there's a courtyard with an abject knight Yodeling his head off for the hell of it.  O poor me, my Lady, my hopeless plight! She married a prince for the hell of it. Honorable, unsatisfied, illicit-- Why bring it up? Just for the hell of it. The fever spread from poet to poet Who burned in the high-minded hell of it. But the Untouchable had him by the throat, And he stopped singing for the hell of it. Love is a tower, a trance, a medieval pit. When I lost you, I knew the hell of it.        Copyright © 2013 by Edward Hirsch. Used with permission of the author.   About This Poem "In the Middle Ages, the troubadour poets invented the concept of courtly love--a fantasy love, a noble passion, which was also extra-marital and thus inevitably thwarted, illicit, adulterous. One of the medieval terms for it was amour honestus (honest love). I've always wondered why this passionate ideal--masochistic, spiritual-travelled with such wildfire throughout Europe. My poem, a ghazal, takes up the subject."   --Edward Hirsch Most Recent Book by Hirsch The Living Fire: New and Selected Poems (Alfred A. Knopf, 2010)   Poem-A-Day Launched during National Poetry Month in 2006, Poem-A-Day features new and previously unpublished poems by contemporary poets on weekdays and classic poems on weekends. Browse the Poem-A-Day Archive.   Edward Hirsch is the author of numerous books of poetry, including The Living Fire: New and Selected Poems (Knopf, 2010). He is a former Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets and the president of the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. He lives in New York City.   Related Poems Even the Rain by Agha Shahid Ali Ghazal: In Silence by Mimi Khalvati To Dorothy by Marvin Bell __________________________ Join us at the Poets Forum in NYC, October 24-26 Purchase Tickets       Thanks for being a part of the Academy of American Poets community. To learn about other programs, including National Poetry Month, Poem in Your Pocket Day, the annual Poets Forum, and more, visit Poets.org.

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