The Seven Deadly Sins: Anthony Hecht’s Emblem Poems

Many poets writing after World War II felt a sense of diffidence towards the great ideals history and religion. They offer satiric interpretation their time, work often perverts typological reading illustrated in Bible by opposing promises second coming Christ with horrors war Holocaust, suggesting that concept “sacrifice” has no redemptive value. Anthony Hecht, an American post-war formalist, expresses this message through ekphrastic medium, specifically emblems, inspired mediaeval culture Renaissance poetry. One his early works, The Seven Deadly Sins, collaboration engraver Leonard Baskin, presents modern collection emblem poems featuring figure Christ, which like emblematic form can be seen as “word made flesh”. Through combinations icons words, emblems become perfect to assess dialectical opposition between God man, body soul, past present.