Anthony Hecht

"So there stood Matthew Arnold and this girl With the cliffs of England crumbling away behind them, And he said to her, "Try to be true to me, And I'll do the same for you, for things are bad All over, etc., etc." ... But all the time he was talking she had in mind The notion of what his whiskers would feel like On the back of her neck."

"She got to looking out At the lights across the channel, and really felt sad, Thinking of all the wine and enormous beds And blandishments in French and the perfumes."

"To have been brought All the way down from London, and then be addressed As a sort of mournful cosmic last resort Is really tough on a girl, and she was pretty."

"And then she said one or two unprintable things."

"Running to fat, but dependable as they come."

"And sometimes I bring her a bottle of Nuit d' Amour."

"Much casual death had drained away their souls."

"No light, no light in the blue Polish eye."

"The Lüger hovered lightly in its glove."

"No prayers or incense rose up in those hours Which grew to be years, and every day came mute Ghosts from the ovens, sifting through crisp air, And settled upon his eyes in a black soot."