Richard Wilbur: Collected Poems 1943-2004 [Paperback]

Richard Wilbur (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 3, 2006

With a distinguished career spanning more than sixty years, Richard Wilbur stands as one of America's preeminent men of letters. Collected Poems 1943-2004 is the comprehensive collection of Wilbur's astonishing, timeless work. It will serve as the most referenced trove of this beloved poet's best verses for many years to come.

In Trackless Woods
In trackless woods, it puzzled me to find
Four great rock maples seemingly aligned,
As if they had been set out in a row
Before some house a century ago,
To edge the property and lend some shade.
I looked to see if ancient wheels had made
Old ruts to which the trees ran parallel,
But there were none, so far as I could tell-
There'd been no roadway. Nor could I find the square
Depression of a cellar anywhere,
And so I tramped on further, to survey
Amazing patterns in a hornbeam spray
Or spirals in a pine cone, under trees
Not subject to our stiff geometries.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

During the early 1950s, no young poet was more admired, nor more imitated, than Wilbur: his elegant stanzas and courteous artifice, devoted to "wit and wakefulness," modest ironies and "small strict shape," fit the careful, even chastised, postwar mood. Five decades and eight books later, Wilbur shows undiminished—and still acknowledged—powers: New Formalists and devotees of Robert Frost find Wilbur a favorite modern model, while readers with broader tastes nevertheless cherish his new excellence in old modes. This expansive and definitive volume (supplanting his Pulitzer Prize–winning 1987 New and Collected Poems) incorporates his strong 2000 book Mayflies, along with 13 new poems which (like Mayflies) alternate nostalgic affection with learned humor: a Frostian lyric set in Key West considers "houses built on sand" which nevertheless "glow like the settings of some noble play." The poet's 1960s and 1970s writings (especially The Mind-Reader) seem here overdue for revival, while his meticulous translations (from Latin, French, Russian and Spanish) comprise a too-often-neglected part of the whole. Wilbur has also won acclaim as a translator of verse plays, a writer of verse for children, and a Broadway lyricist; a brief appendix holds "show lyrics" from Candide (1956), and a much longer one collects his five children's books, among them Opposites (1973) and More Opposites (1991): "The opposite of fast is loose,/ And if you doubt it you're a goose."
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

Ever wonder why many poets present their collected poems in reverse chronological order? In Wilbur's case, it is clearly a matter of giving the best pride of place. Not to detract from his earliest work. The technical brio and impressive erudition of the poems in The Beautiful Changes (1947) still dazzle. Wilbur's formal poetic manners were impeccable; his store of traditional poet's knowledge--such things as the names, legends, and literature of plants, creatures, and stars--was large; and his wit, for the purposes of humor and verbal legerdemain, was elegant. Newly emerged from World War II service with a hot consciousness of life's cruelties and horrors, he celebrated nature and human interactions with it in despite of anger and metaphysical doubt, and he longed for the immortality that natural beauty seemed to demand--that there should always be a conscious audience for such wonders. Time cooled his postwar heat, but that celebration and that longing persist. Technically, Wilbur remains assured and impressive; he is the premier American master of formal verse. His knowledge has expanded with his life, and his wit has grown in humor while mellowing linguistically; he now rewards careful reading more than he demands it. And he became an ace children's poet (see appendix B in this volume) and a marvelous translator from French, Russian, and Spanish. He's indispensable. Ray Olson
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 608 pages
• Publisher: Harcourt (April 3, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0156030799
• ISBN-13: 978-0156030793
• Product Dimensions: 5.9 x 1.1 x 9.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #779,155 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

51 of 54 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars this book should be in every home November 4, 2004

By Edward P. Skoog

Format:Hardcover

Wilbur's collected poems would be in every American home if poetry was taught better. He is the most technically proficient poet in American literary history. In matters of rhythm, meter, rhyme, shape and form, he is a sculptor, a magician.

Check out these tercets from "First Snow in Alsace," remembering that Wilbur saw pretty much three years of straight combat in World War Two:

The snow came down last night like moths

Burned on the moon; it fell till dawn,

Covered the town with simple cloths.

Absolute snow lies rumpled on

What shellbursts scattered and deranged,

Entangled railings, crevassed lawn.

You think: beyond the town a mile

Or two, this snowfall fills the eyes

Of soldiers dead a little while.

29 of 29 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Necessary February 7, 2006

By Eric J. Lyman VINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover

I first read Richard Wilbur's poems more than 20 years ago, but I have to admit that for most of that time he has been for me like the fire brigade or catastrophic health insurance -- I was glad he was there, but for whatever reason he didn't seem terribly relevant in my life.

This book helped remind me how wrong I have been.

Upon reflection, I realize that at least part of the reason for my undervaluing Mr. Wilbur's work stems from my own shortcoming: I was probably too young to appreciate his delicate insight and wit when I formed my opinions about him. But the main reason is probably because he's such a forgettable personality. He is a white male. Like most men of his generation, he served in the army during World War II. He doesn't use strange punctuation marks or filthy language. I know almost nothing about his personal life, but, as far as I know, he has never considered suicide, he has never been in rehab, he has never gone mad, and he has never been arrested. All he has done is produce beautiful and important poems, virtually non-stop for more than 60 years. In an age in which we are flooded with public personalities that demand to be noticed, that is disappointingly easy to overlook.

Collected Poems, 1943-2004 is probably as close as we're going to get to Mr. Wilbur demanding to be noticed. And if you are the type who enjoys simple pleasures and metrical poise, then you really should notice him as he appears on these pages. Everything Mr. Wilbur wrote through 2004 is included here, including previously unpublished recent poems, song lyrics, children's poems, and the great poet's well-known published works. There is no need to own any other book of Mr. Wilbur's poetry if you buy this.

I'm not enough of a fool to try to use my own words to describe Mr. Wilbur's. Instead, I'll end with the final verse of Seed Leaves, one of my favorite poems in the book:

Forced to make choice of ends,
The stalk in time unbends,
Shakes off the seed-case, heaves
Aloft, and spreads two leaves
Which display no sure
And special signature.

Indeed.

21 of 21 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars One of ours July 28, 2005

By M. Magie

Format:Hardcover

Wilbur is one of the indispensables; impossible to imagine American poetry, or indeed the American trajectory, without these poems, so deftly shaped, giving such wry light. I am grateful for this book.