Quote:
Originally Posted by Roger Slater
Wilbur's "The Pardon" is the only poem of his that I think is powerfully emotional. It's a great poem, my favorite of his. Though the quieter emotion of poems like "Love Call Us to the Things of This World" is (for me) hard to deny. The soul descending to accept the waking body is original and works for me quite well. Hecht, on the other hand, I've never been able to bond with. Would Hecht fans please single out one or two starter poems that might hook me?
|
I think "
It Out Herods-Herod. Pray You Avoid It" is the one most people turn to. What interests me is why this poem leaves me cold while, just to compare it to another highly learned mid-century formalist poem also written in response to the Holocaust, Auden's "The Shield of Achilles" does not, a poem I find so moving I can recite parts from memory. Perhaps just the whims of taste...