Born in New York City to Jewish-German parents and a classmate of Jack Kerouac in high school, Hecht decided that he wanted to become a poet when he began his undergraduate study at Bard College.

Hecht’s poetry uses exquisitely beautiful and lyrical verse to address horrific issues of war and destruction. His poetry is especially concerned with the Holocaust, which he witnessed firsthand for himself when he served in World War II. In 1944, upon finishing his degree at Bard, Hecht was drafted and fought on several fronts until the war ended. He was intensely influenced by his experience in helping liberate the Flossenbürg concentration camp on April 23, 1945.

After the war, Hecht studied in Ohio as well as in the Iowa Writers Workshop, where he met many established poets. A Summoning of Stones, his first volume, was published in 1954. Hecht’s memories of World War II plagued him throughout his life, causing him to have a nervous breakdown in 1959. He published throughout his life and taught at the University of Rochester. He was Poet Laureate from 1982 to 1984.

Hecht is known for his use of the double dactyl in his poetry, which is usually employed in children’s nursery rhymes and light verse. Combining this playfulness with the heavy subject matter of his poetry was his trademark. Therefore, his poems have a singsong-like quality when read aloud.

–Christie Finn