Sightseer In This Killing City

Sightseer in This Killing City is the first collection by one of the major poets of the last fifty years. A book of extraordinary range and virtuosity, it is one of the key volumes of postwar American poetry.

Hecht's poems are marked by their intelligence, wit, and formal mastery. He is a poet of wide-ranging interests, and his work reflects his deep knowledge of history, art, and music. Sightseer in This Killing City includes poems on subjects as diverse as the Holocaust, the Vietnam War, and the American landscape.

Hecht's poems are often dark and disturbing, but they are also full of beauty and hope. He is a poet who confronts the horrors of the world head-on, but he never loses sight of the human spirit's capacity for love and redemption.

Sightseer in This Killing City is a major work by one of the most important poets of our time. It is a book that deserves to be read and reread for generations to come.

About the Author

Anthony Hecht was born in New York City in 1923. He served in the US Army during World War II, and after the war he attended Kenyon College and the University of Iowa. He taught at a number of universities, including Bard College, Yale University, and the University of Rochester.

Hecht was a prolific writer, and he published over a dozen collections of poetry, as well as several works of criticism. He received numerous awards for his work, including the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Award, and the Bollingen Prize.

Hecht died in Washington, D.C., in 2004.

Critical Reception

Sightseer in This Killing City was met with critical acclaim upon its publication in 1960. Louis Untermeyer called it "a book of striking originality and power," and Randall Jarrell praised Hecht's "extraordinary range and virtuosity."

The book has continued to be praised by critics over the years. In a 2004 review, Harold Bloom wrote that Sightseer in This Killing City is "one of the most important books of poetry of the last fifty years." Bloom praised Hecht's "intelligence, wit, and formal mastery," and he called him "one of the finest poets of our time."

Legacy

Sightseer in This Killing City is a classic work of American poetry. It is a book that has been praised by critics for its intelligence, wit, and formal mastery. Hecht's poems are dark and disturbing, but they are also full of beauty and hope. He is a poet who confronts the horrors of the world head-on, but he never loses sight of the human spirit's capacity for love and redemption.

Sightseer in This Killing City is a major work by one of the most important poets of our time. It is a book that deserves to be read and reread for generations to come.