Collected Earlier Poems of Anthony Hecht: The Complete Texts of The Hard Hours, Millions of Strange Shadows, and The Venetian Vespers - Softcover

Hecht, Anthony

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0679733574 ISBN 13: 9780679733577

Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, 1992

Synopsis

 THE VENETIAN VESPERS (1979)
“In its clear-eyed mercy toward human weakness, Anthony Hecht’s poetry goes from strength to strength.  The Venetian Vespers is at once an intense corroboration and an ample extension of his subtle, supple talents.  Nothing humane is alien to him...  There is a handful of short poems that are fostered alike by beauty and fear.  But it is the four long poems that confirm Hecht as a poet of the widest apprehensions and comprehension, and this without the gigantism that so haunts American poetic ambition.”
 —Christopher Ricks, The New York Times Book Review
 
MILLIONS OF STRANGE SHADOWS (1977)
“The high artistry of Anthony Hecht has been to nurture his own gift, and to work at it with the deliberateness and steadiness that it deserved from him... Emotional intensity and formal power were combined in Hecht from his beginnings... The thirty poems in Millions of Strange Shadows are all fully written, but several truly are the best he has published and are very likely to endure.  The very best is ‘Green: An Epistle,’ which is a lesson in profound, controlled subjectivity and self-revelation, an exact antithesis to the opaque squalors of ‘confessional’ poets.  Almost equally remarkable is ‘Coming Home,’ in which the poet John Clare receives a deeper interpretation than any critic has afforded him...”                                                                                             
—Harold Bloom, The New Republic
 
THE HARD HOURS (1968)
“Anthony Hecht’s first volume of poems, A Summoning of Stones, established him as one of the most accomplished of his extremely accomplished generation.  His work was remarkable enough for its classical poise and elegance, but it also had a weight which set it apart.  Since then his poetry has come clear in a direction nobody could have predicted...He did the most difficult thing of all: this most fastidious and elegant of poets shed every artifice and began to write with absolute raw simplicity and directness.  Only a poet with an immense burden of something to say ever dreams of taking this course, and only an inspired artist can bring it off.  The result here has been some of the most powerful and unforgettable poems at present being written in America,”
—Ted Hughes

About this title

About the Author:

Anthony Hecht (1923-2004) was born in New York. His first book of poems, A Summoning of Stones, appeared in 1954, and his second book, The Hard Hours, won the Pulitzer Prize for poetry in 1968. Millions of Strange Shadows was published in 1977, followed by The Venetian Vespers in 1979. All of these are included here in Collected Earlier Poems (the first in selected forms). His later volumes, The Transparent Man (1990), Flight Among the Tombs (1996), and The Darkness and the Light (2001) are gathered in Collected Later Poems (2003). He was also the author of a study of the poetry of W. H. Auden, The Hidden Law (1993), as well as several collections of critical essays, including Melodies Unheard: Essays on the Mysteries of Poetry (2003). Among other honors, he received the Bollingen Prize in Poetry, the Librex-Guggenheim Eugenio Montale Award, the Wallace Stevens Award, and the Robert Frost Medal. He was a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, as well as the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Review:

To A Madonna
Heureux Qui, Comme Ulysse, A Fait Un Beau Voyage
Cape Cod Lullaby
Lagoon
Adam
After The Rain; For W.d. Snodgrass
Alceste In The Wilderness
'and Can Ye Sing Baluloo When The Bairn Greets?'
Apples For Paul Stuttman
Application For A Grant
Apprehensions
As Plato Said
'auguries Of Innocence'
Auspices
An Autumnal
Behold The Lilies Of The Field
Birdwatchers Of America
A Birthday Poem
Black Boy In The Dark
A Cast Of Light; At A Father's Day Picnic
Christmas Is Coming
Clair De Lune
Coming Home; From The Journals Of John Clare
The Cost
A Deep Breath At Dawn
The Deodand
'dichtung Und Wahrheit'; For Cyrus Hoy
Discourse Concerning Temptation
Double Sonnet
The Dover Bitch; A Criticism Of Life
Drinking Song
The End Of The Weekend
Exile; For Joseph Brodsky
The Feast Of Stephen
Fifth Avenue Parade
The Gardens Of The Villa D'este
The Ghost In The Martini
Giant Tortoise
'gladness Of The Best;' For Hays Rockwell
Going The Rounds: A Sort Of Love Poem
Goliardic Song
The Grapes
Green: An Epistle
A Hill
House Sparrows
The Hunt; For Zbigniew Herbert
Imitation
Improvisations On Aesop
'it Out-herods Herod. Pray You, Avoid It'
Japan
Jason
La Condition Botanique
Le Masseur De Ma Soeur
A Letter
Lizards And Snakes
A Lot Of Night Music
The Lull; For Allen Tate
The Man Who Married Magdalene; Variation Theme Louis Simpson
Message From The City
'more Light! More Light!'
The Odds
The Origin Of Centaurs; Frp Dimtri Hadzi
Ostia Antica
An Overview
Peripeteia
Persistences
Pig
A Poem For Julia
Retreat
Rites And Ceremonies: 1. The Room
Rites And Ceremonies: 2. The Fire Sermon
Rites And Ceremonies: 3. The Dream
Rites And Ceremonies: 4. Words For The Day Of Atonement
A Roman Holiday
Rome
Samuel Sewall
Sestina D'inverno
The Seven Deadly Sins: Avarice
The Seven Deadly Sins: Envy
The Seven Deadly Sins: Gluttony
The Seven Deadly Sins: Lust
The Seven Deadly Sins: Pride
The Seven Deadly Sins: Sloth
The Seven Deadly Sins: Wrath
The Short End
Somebody's Life
The Song Of The Flea
Still Life
Swan Dive
Tarantula Or The Dance Of Death
Third Avenue In Sunlight
The Thoughtful Roistered Declines The Gambit
Three Prompters From The Wings
Upon The Death Of George Santayana
The Venetian Vespers
The Venetian Vespers: Introductory Poem; For Helen
A Voice At A Seance
The Vow
An Old Malediction
Invective Against Denise, A Witch
Oedipus At Colonus: Chorus. Praise For Kolonos
Poem Upon The Lisbon Disaster
-- Table of Poems from Poem Finder®

About this edition

• Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
• Publication date: 1992
• ISBN 10: 0679733574
• ISBN 13: 9780679733577
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 288