Hecht, Anthony 1923-2004

Seven against Thebes by Aeschylus ( Book )
13 editions published between 1973 and 1991 in English and held by 1,116 libraries worldwide
The formidable talents of Anthony Hecht, one of the most gifted of contemporary American poets, and Helen Bacon, a classical scholar, are here brought to bear on this vibrant translation of Aeschylus' much underrated tragedy The Seven Against Thebes. The third and only remaining play in a trilogy dealing with related events, The Seven Against Thebes tells the story of the Argive attempt to claim the Kingdom of Thebes, and of the deaths of the brothers Eteocles and Polyneices, each by the others hand. Long dismissed by critics as ritualistic and lacking in dramatic tension, Seven Against Thebes.

The hard hours; poems by Anthony Hecht ( Book )
22 editions published between 1964 and 1984 in English and held by 927 libraries worldwide

The Venetian vespers : poems by Anthony Hecht ( Book )
10 editions published between 1979 and 1984 in English and held by 859 libraries worldwide

The hidden law : the poetry of W.H. Auden by Anthony Hecht ( Book )
9 editions published in 1993 in English and held by 833 libraries worldwide
In this study - the fruit of a lifelong critical and imaginative engagement with W H. Auden's works - Anthony Hecht identifies and traces consistent habits of thought and belief within the poet's extensive and varied writings and through his celebrated conversions and repudiations, literary and otherwise. Hecht acknowledges that Auden's poems "both invite the intrusive scrutiny of the cryptographer and deny him access." Yet the readings he offers of poems from every phase of Auden's career, along with dramatic works and critical essays, manage to explicate and illuminate Auden's rich (and often cryptic) allusiveness without murdering to dissect. Among the themes that connect Auden's works are his deep interest in the workings of language; his notion of the ultimate frivolity of art; his interest in the nature of heroism; his understanding of the relation of public to private life; the development of his religious thought; and what Auden called the "hidden law" that governs human existence - a strict and retaliatory force, something like poetic justice, that gives form to our best literature and shapes our personal fates. Hecht identifies these preoccupations in Auden's work - and shows how they cut across the many genres in which he wrote - without losing sight of each poem's individual history and context. As one of Auden's most distinguished poetic heirs, Anthony Hecht is uniquely qualified to illuminate both the reading and the writing of these essential works of twentieth-century literature.

Melodies unheard : essays on the mysteries of poetry by Anthony Hecht ( Book )
8 editions published between 2003 and 2005 in English and held by 757 libraries worldwide
[In this volume, the author] explores the mysteries of poetry, offering profound insight into poetic form, meter, rhyme, and meaning. Ranging from Renaissance to contemporary poets, [he] considers the work of Shakespeare, Sidney, and Noel; Housman, Hopkins, Eliot, and Auden; Frost, Bishop, and Wilbur; Amichai, Simic, and Heaney. Stepping back from individual poets, [he] muses on rhyme and on meter, and also discusses St. Paul's Epistle to the Galatians and Melville's Moby-Dick. Uniting these diverse subjects is Hecht's preoccupation with the careful deployment of words, the richness and versatility of language and of those who use it well.-Dust jacket.

Obbligati : essays in criticism by Anthony Hecht ( Book )
5 editions published between 1985 and 1986 in English and Undetermined and held by 676 libraries worldwide

Millions of strange shadows : [poems by Anthony Hecht ( Book )
6 editions published between 1977 and 1980 in English and held by 664 libraries worldwide

The transparent man : poems by Anthony Hecht ( Book )
10 editions published between 1990 and 1992 in English and held by 612 libraries worldwide

Collected earlier poems : the complete texts of The hard hours, Millions of strange shadows, The Venetian vespers by Anthony Hecht ( Book )
15 editions published between 1990 and 2001 in English and Undetermined and held by 607 libraries worldwide

The darkness and the light : poems by Anthony Hecht ( Book )
6 editions published between 2001 and 2002 in English and held by 599 libraries worldwide
An exquisite book in which a series of poems about biblical characters -- "Samson", "Saul and David", "Judith", and so on -- provides the backdrop for other reflections on both the beauty and the darkness in contemporary life. We see ourselves in fresh light as Hecht illuminates the simililarites between our own age and the biblical world, and finds postmodern sadness in stories like that of Miriam, who announces in her poem, "I had a nice voice once, and a large following./I was, you might say, a star". The centerpiece of the volume is the stunning "Sacrifice", a three-part poem that connects the story of Abraham and Isaac to an arresting Second World War scene unfolding in provincial occupied France in 1945.