Anthony Hecht is one of the outstanding poets of his generation, which is the generation that came of age during or immediately after World War II. In 1923, the year of his birth, at least four other poets of distinction were born: Louis Simpson, Denise Levertov, Daniel Hoffman, and James Dickey. Edgar Bowers, James Merrill, and a dozen others soon came along. It is a very successful generation, one that has frequently been awarded prizes, fellowships, and teaching posts at leading universities, and almost without exception these poets have continued to publish work that is remarkably good. Their success has been earned. Perhaps more than some other generations, they have considered poetry a profession, a calling of great dignity.

Anthony Hecht's poetry has the high finish that one finds in the work of some of his contemporaries ( Richard Wilbur, Merrill, Bowers, and John Hollander, for instance), and, indeed, at...