The idea offered itself of having the voices of other writers be the vehicle. Hirsch wrote an initial batch of seven, which were published together in the Paris Review. He thought he was through, but other writers clamored for a hearing. The question became, how wide-ranging could you be in your sympathies, how full and encyclopedic a portrait of love were you able to give. While each poem aims to be true to the style and sensibility of the author-narrator, Hirsch's own voice also peeks through.
Several things hold the sequence together.
One, of course, is the subject. Finally, there's the elaborate rhyme scheme Hirsch adopts. Hirsch works a number of variations using this basic scheme. Her poem probably come closest to his own view on the subject, he says. Being observant and attentive and ardent at the same time seems to me to be an ideal.