[The miscellaneous pieces about British and German authors contained in Art as Second Nature: Occasional Pieces 1950–74] are more than just crumbs of an intellectual banquet, and one remarkable trait is the extent to which they penetrate their respective topics in depth, within the generally very narrow compass allowed by literary journalism. Quick sharp probings they are, and it is no wonder that Hamburger should turn out to be so frequently quotable in a book that introduces itself to us in the demure guise of a miscellany. He is of course a poet, as the short unpretentious self-analysis called "A Writer on his Work" reminds us and as any reader of his translations from Hölderlin knows…. (p. 663)

With Hamburger the critic is the right arm of the poet. Only a poet could start an essay-review of Kierkegaard in this fashion: "To review this book is indecent, like giving...