Hell, the Theme Park and Other Poems

Hell, the Theme Park, A Coda to the Dantescan Inferno: I began to read the Inferno, in Italian, perhaps twenty-five years ago; Dante'slanguage is closer to modern Italian than is Chaucer's to modern English.Over time, it occurred to me that the epoch in which I lived offered examples ofindividuals worthy of Hell. Thus, the notion of an updated Inferno began to formin my mind. To keep the scope of the work within operable limits, I resolved tofocus upon the United States, post WW II: ergo the "Post-War American Wing."The question of versification was easily settled; I chose the heroic couplet ofAlexander Pope – my favorite of the great English poets.This volume also includes a number of shorter poems, notably sonnets, on which Ihave worked occasionally over the years.