217;s,The one that annually coos in Our Lady’s earHalf of the world’s hopes…For instance, the woman next door, whom we hear at night,Claims that when she was smallShe found a man stone dead near the cedar treesAfter the first snowfall.The air was clear. He seemed in ultimate peaceExcept that he had no eyes. Rigid and brightUpon the forehead, furredWith a light frost, crouched an outrageous bird. (Hecht, “Birdwatchers of America” 1072-1073)The dove is first described as being a creature of divine inspiration serving as both a muse to artists and the Christian church, but the expected “positive” ending is thwarted by the horrific and ironic picture of a dove sitting upon the forehead of a man missing his eyes. A bird that possesses a positive connotation pecks out a man’s eyes. Having a dove act in such a manner creates the irony Hecht seeks in this poem (Hecht, Vol. 19 210). “More Light! More Light!” also employs irony in order to convey its “narrative of atrocity” (Hecht, Vol. 19 209). A Pole working at Buchenwald, a Nazi concentration camp, is shot for refusing to dig a grave for two Jews.No light, no light in the blue Polish eye.When he finished a riding boot packed down the earth.The Luger hovered lightly in its glove.He was shot in the belly and in three hours bled to death.No prayers or incense rose up in those hoursWhich grew to be years, and every day came muteGhosts from the ovens sifting through crisp air,And settled upon his eyes in a black soot. (Hecht, “More Light!” 1073-1074”)On the surface, his lack of a proper burial represents the lack of resolution in the conflict of World War II. However, it more deeply connotes Hecht’s continual theme of man’s inhumanity to his fellow humans as well as the destruction of humanity. The irony stems from the fact that the only burial he received came from the soot from the ovens...
