Collected Later Poems

Collected Later Poems

Anthony Hecht, now in his eightieth year, has earned a place alongside such poets as W. H. Auden, Robert Frost, and Elizabeth Bishop. Here under one cover are his three most recent collections–<i>The Transparent Man, Flight Among the Tombs, </i>and<i> The Darkness and the Light</i>. The perfect companion to his <i>Collected Earlier Poems </i>(continuously in print since 1990), this book brings the eloquent sound of Hecht’s music to bear on a wide variety of human dramas: from a young woman dying of leukemia to the tangled love affairs of <i>A Midsummer Night’s Dream;</i> from Death as the director of Hollywood films to the unexpected image of Marcel Proust as a figure skater.<br><br>He glides with a gaining confidence, inscribes<br>Tentative passages, thinks again, backtracks,<br>Comes to a minute point,<br>Then wheels about in widening sweeps and lobes,<br>Large Palmer cursives and smooth <i>entrelacs,<br></i>Preoccupied, intent<br><br>On a subtle, long-drawn style and pliant script<br>Incised with twin steel blades and qualified<br>Perfectly to express,<br>With arms flung wide or gloved hands firmly gripped<br>Behind his back, attentively, clear-eyed,<br>A glancing happiness.<br><br><br><i>From the Hardcover edition.</i>