Wilbur S Poetry

Discusses the poems and translations of a leading contemporary poet.

A new collection of poetry, translations, light verse, and riddles.

In 1989 Richard Wilbur published New and Collected Poems, a landmark volume that won that year's Pulitzer Prize. Now, ten years later, he has prepared a collection of all the poetry he has written in the intervening years, together with new translations of Moliere (from Amphitryon) and Dante. These twenty-five poems reaffirm Wilbur's stature as one of our greatest living masters of verse.

With wit, charm, and grace the interviews in this collection demonstrate what readers of Wilbur's poems long have suspected: that this former U.S. poet laureate is no less persuasive and forceful in extemporaneous speech than he is in verse and prose. Wilbur proves as enlightening and thought-provoking with student reporters from Amherst College, his alma mater, as with journalists for THE PARIS REVIEW, displaying the same dazzling talents that garnered him the Pulitzer Prize in 1957 and again thirty years later. Opinionated yet ever-charitable, he presents the case for rhyme and meter in a dozen different ways in just as many interviews. He expresses a degree of admiration for poetic opposites such as Allen Ginsberg and addresses the objections of his critics. Wilbur's comments and keen insights on his coevals and his craft read as articulately as fine prose. His observations never fail to stimulate or to challenge.

Winner of the 11th annual Nicholas Roerich Poetry Prize, "The Long Home" is Christian Wiman's

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

This volume represents virtually all of Wilbur's published poetry to date, including his six earlier collections, twenty-seven new poems, and a cantata. Winner of the 1989 Pulitzer Prize and the Los Angeles Times Book Award for Poetry.