- Anthony Hecht
Anthony Evan Hecht, (
January 16 1923 –October 20 2004 ), was an Americanpoet . His work combined a deep interest in form with a passionate desire to confront the horrors of 20th century history, with the Second World War, in which he fought, and theHolocaust being recurrent themes in his work.Life
Hecht was born in
New York City to German-Jew ish parents. He was educated at various schools in the city - he was a classmate ofJack Kerouac at one point - but showed no great academic ability, something he would later refer to as "conspicuous." However, as a freshman English student atBard College in New York he discovered the works of Stevens, Auden, Eliot, andDylan Thomas . It was at this point that he decided he would become a poet. Hecht's parents were not happy at his plans and tried to discourage them; even getting family friend Ted Geisel, better known as Dr. Seuss, to attempt to dissuade him.In 1944, upon completing his final year at Bard, Hecht was drafted into the 97th Infantry Division and was sent to the battlefields in Europe. He saw a great deal of combat in
Germany ,France , andCzechoslovakia . However, his most significant experience occurred onApril 23 1945 . On this day Hecht's division helped liberateFlossenbürg concentration camp . Hecht was ordered to interview French prisoners in the hope of gathering evidence on the camp's commanders. Years later, Hecht said of this experience, "The place, the suffering, the prisoners' accounts were beyond comprehension. For years after I would wake shrieking."Career
After the war ended, Hecht took advantage of the G.I. bill to study under the poet-critic
John Crowe Ransom atKenyon College ,Ohio . Here he came into contact with fellow poets such asRobert Lowell ,Randall Jarrell ,Elizabeth Bishop , andAllen Tate . He later received hismaster's degree fromColumbia University .Hecht released his first collection, "
A Summoning of Stones ", in 1954. In this work his mastery of a wide range of poetic forms were clear as was his awareness of the forces of history, which he had seen first hand. Even at this stage Hecht's poetry was often compared with that of Auden, with whom Hecht had become friends in 1951 during a holiday on the Italian island ofIschia , where Auden spent each summer. In 1993 Hecht published, "The Hidden Law ", a critical reading of Auden's body of work. During his career Hecht won many fans, and prizes, including thePrix de Rome in 1951 and the 1968Pulitzer Prize for Poetry for his second work "The Hard Hours ". It was within this volume that Hecht first addressed his own experiences of World War II - memories that had caused him to have anervous breakdown in 1959. Hecht spent three months in hospital following his breakdown, although he was spared electric shock therapy, unlikeSylvia Plath , whom he had encountered while teaching atSmith College .Hecht's main source of income was as a teacher of poetry, most notably at the
University of Rochester where he taught from 1967 to 1985. He also spent varying lengths of time teaching at other notable institutions such as Smith, Bard,Harvard , Georgetown, and Yale. Between 1982 and 1984 he held the esteemed position ofPoet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress . Hecht won a number of notable literary awards including: the 1968Pulitzer Prize for Poetry (for the volume "The Hard Hours"), the 1983Bollingen Prize , the 1988Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize , the 1997Wallace Stevens Award , the 1999/2000Frost Medal , and theTanning Prize .He is buried at the cemetery at Bard College.
Double Dactyl
Hecht is also notably one of the inventors of the
double dactyl , a form of light verse.In his weekly on-line chat on January 22, 2008,
Gene Weingarten of theWashington Post wrote a double dactyl to honor Hecht:Higgledy Piggledy
Anthony Hecht, who could
Write about death in words
Epic yet warm,
Went to his own with some
Counterintuitive
Logic; his legacy's
This stupid form.
Bibliography
Poetry
* "
A Summoning of Stones " (1954)
* "The Hard Hours " (1968)
* "The Venetian Vespers " (1979)
* "Flight Among the Tombs " (1998)
* "The Darkness and the Light" (2001)Other Works
* "" (1986)
* "" (1994)
* "" (2003)External links
* [http://www.english.uiuc.edu/maps/poets/g_l/hecht/hecht.htm Hecht's poetry page]
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