Drypoints of the Hasidim is a particularly interesting study of an 18th-century middle-European Jewish sect about which a F(rank) T(empleton) Prince 1912– Photography by Elizabeth Princenon-Jewish, or even a Jewish, audience is likely to know little. Since F. T. Prince is an eminent scholar as well as a poet, he explains the references in an introductory essay, separate from the book, and in his footnotes. Still, on a first reading one may be put off by allusions to unfamiliar names and places. The entire poem, however, is suffused with an empathetic passion difficult to ignore. Fragments of history alternate with wise commentary…. Formally, Drypoints of the Hasidim derives, probably, from Pound and Eliot, but it is far less pretentious than The Cantos and less preachy than Four Quartets. It is also, one has to add, a much less ambitious poem than those 20th-century landmarks, as Dr...