Poems of Richard Wilbur

by Richard Wilbur

Book Overview

This collection includes Advice to a Prophet and Other Poems, Things of This World, Ceremony and Other Poems, and The Beautiful Changes and Other Poems.

"One of the best poets of his generation, Richard Wilbur has imagined excellence, and has created it." --Richard Eberhart, New York Times Book Review

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0156722518
• ISBN13: 9780156722513
• Release Date: September 1963
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
• Length: 240 Pages
• Weight: 0.55 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.3" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

Poetry that is accessable and filled with fun

Richard Wilbur will probably never be viewed as a 'great' poet. His poems seem slight and perhaps too easy to comprehend in an age that has put a premium on dense and obscure poetry. His major success as a writer has been in his wonderful translations of Moliere's plays, but his poems offer the same kind of appeal as his translations - a keen sense of fun in lanuage, a fresh perspective and an economy of expression. I suspect that even readers who don't normally turn to poetry would enjoy the sense of play that underlies so many of these poems and the elegance with which he expresses playfulness. Even when the subject is serious, the leaness of the language, the selection of just the right word or phrase for the purpose, gives Wilbur's work a kind of classical timelessness. And if one likes reading aloud, the sound of Wilbur's lines has a full pleasantness that is a joy to the ear. Reading any of his poems a few times will leave phrases in the mind just begging to be repeated. This is not poetry to rival Milton or Eliot for either thematic grandeur or emotional impact. But for the shear joy of thought embodied in language there is no contemporary poet whose work is more satisfying.