Anthony Hecht, anyone?

[Gup]

In one of those weird moments of synchronicity that I always feel mean more than they probably do, my 87 year old, librarian in south Georgia grandmother sent me a copy of Hecht's poem, A Hill. I'd never heard of him before, but loved what she sent me. Then this week, I read an article announcing publication of a book of his essays on poetry this spring. Any recommendations on other works of his? Thanks in advance.

Gup

[Dubliner]

My book of Anthony Hecht's poetry is entitled 'The Hard Hours' (OUP London 1967) Although I can't tell you much about the man himself, the book contains one of my all-time favourite poems:-


A LETTER
I have been wondering

What you are thinking about, and by now suppose

It is certainly not me.

But the crocus is up, and the lark, and the blundering

Blood knows what it knows.

It talks to itself all night, like a sliding moonlit sea.


Of course, it is talking of you.

At dawn, where the ocean has netted its catch of lights,

The sun plants one lithe foot

On that spill of mirrors, but the blood goes worming through

Its warm Arabian nights,

Naming your pounding name again in the dark heart-root.


Who shall, of course, be nameless.

Anyway, I should want you to know I have done my best,

As I'm sure you have, too.

Others are bound to us, the gentle and blameless

Whose names are not confessed

In the ceaseless palaver. My dearest, the clear unquaried blue


Of those depths is all but blinding.

You may remember that once you brought my boys

Two little woolly birds.

Yesterday the older one asked for you upon finding

Your thrush among his toys.

And the tides welled about me, and I could find no words.


There is not much else to tell.

One tries one's best to continue as before,

Doing some little good.

But I would have you know that all is not well

With a man dead set to ignore

The endless repetitions of his own murmurous blood.


---------------


(Hope you like it - I find it one of the most moving poems I know
Regards, Dubliner)

[Tony Hoffman]

BTW, there's an article about Hecht in yesterday's New York Times:

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/01/21/books/21HECH.html

--Tony

[weatheringdaleson]

The man co-invented the Double Dactyl (http://www.stinky.com/dactyl/dactyl.html). Now, that's just cool.