318
invoking Mother Goosery to
counterpoint the very real horror
of the refrain, "Who killed the
Jews?"
The Swastika Poems
are
often unbearable, as in "Blue"
(about a truckload of burning
babies); sometimes lyrical, as in
the several Rilke imitations; and
nearly always highly personal,
as in the title poem and "A
Snapshot of My Father, 1928."
The confessional poems are un–
sparing, yet never sentimental.
This lack of sentimentality or
sensationalism, given the po–
ems' subjects, is remarkable, a
tribute
to
Heyen's control and
skill. I regret the seemingly
PARTISAN REVIEW
"easy" concl usion, that we
all
killed the Jews (a conclusion not
at all arrived at easily, of course,
as the whole of the book
evidences-only seeming to be
easy because the thought has
been expressed by so many
be–
fore).
Nevertheless, in a time
when many of our poets are
writing about bric-a-brac, or
each other, William Heyen has
attempted large historical and
emotional subjects, taken many
risks, and emerged through a
corridor of flame to be seen as
one of our most serious and
accomplished poets.
