Michael Dirda’s books reviews for The Washington Post are an education. But he put a little extra mustard, as my father would say, on his essay on the poet Anthony Hecht. The essay was prompted by the publication of Hecht’s Collected Poems and of a biography, A Poet’s Life by David Yezzi.
Hecht, an infantryman during World War II, is known for his poems about war. His division liberated Flossenbürg. Hecht was ordered to collect evidence. It probably doesn’t make sense to talk about recovering from some experiences.
The readers who commented on Dirda’s essay tried to mention Hecht’s famous poem “The Dover Bitch,” a play on Matthew Arnold’s “Dover Beach.” But the program that monitors comments on The Post’s website wouldn’t let the readers type the correct name of the poem. It made for an interesting conversation about why Hecht might be a neglected poet. He’s ill-served by our technologies.
“The Dover Bitch” is an interesting poem, but the one I remember is “More Light! More Light!” It’s a comparison of two executions. The first, centuries ago, was horrible, but the burned man called on his God to witness his innocence, and the executioners believed in what they were doing and prayed for his soul.
The second occurred at Buchenwald. People died horribly but without ceremony. As the poet said:
Much casual death had drained away their souls.
• Sources: Michael Dirda, “Anthony Hecht strived to be on poetry’s A-list. He should be there.” The Washington Post, Nov. 7, 2023. It’s online here:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/books/2023/11/07/anthony-hecht-appreciation-biography/
Hecht’s poem “More Light, More Light” is at the Poetry Foundation’s site:
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/49086/more-light-more-light
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