[Gregory Dowling]

A little late in the day but I just realised...

Here's a poem from a decade back by Richard Wilbur:

A BIRTHDAY BALLADE FOR ANTHONY HECHT

An Eightieth-Birthday Ballade
for Anthony Hecht

Who is the man whose poems dare
Describe man’s inhumanities,
And count our deadly sins, and bare
Such truths as cause the blood to freeze,
Yet in whose darkest verse one sees
How style and agile intellect
Can both instruct and greatly please?
I speak, of course, of Tony Hecht.

Who is the man who has a flair
For double-dactyl drolleries
And other forms, as light as air,
That call for wit and expertise,
Whose “Dover Bitch,” moreover, frees
His comic gifts to play unchecked?
Who is his own antipodes?
The many-sided Tony Hecht.

Who has translated Baudelaire,
Avoiding all translationese?
Who rendered Brodsky and Voltaire
And Horace’s urbanities,
And would be named by all of these
As one of their august elect?
Can there be any question? He’s
That true Parnassian, Tony Hecht.

By now, Prince, you must be aware
Of what bard most deserves respect.
There is but one beyond compare,
The incomparable Tony Hecht.