This comprehensive collection presents new and never published poems by Richard Wilbur, author of 17 poetry collections, four children's books, and numerous works in prose and translations.
One of the most honored poets of 20th-century American verse, Richard Wilbur won both the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award for his poetry.
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.
“PRAISE FORCOLLECTED POEMS 1943-2004 "Collected Poems 1943-2004is the indispensable Wilbur. The emergence of a poet like Wilbur as a hero to a new generation of critics is cause for hope: that readers, not gatekeepers, might rediscover poems written in the spirit of generosity and care, and disciplined by the idea of an uncaptive audience."--The New York Times Book Review "The work in these five hundred or so pages has been one of the saving graces of poetry in our time, as beautiful and moving as it is artful and accomplished. This collected edition will see a reader through quiet evenings and noisy Metro commutes, indeed through one's whole life."--The Washington Post Book World”
PRAISE FOR COLLECTED POEMS 1943-2004
"Collected Poems 1943-2004 is the indispensable Wilbur. The emergence of a poet like Wilbur as a hero to a new generation of critics is cause for hope: that readers, not gatekeepers, might rediscover poems written in the spirit of generosity and care, and disciplined by the idea of an uncaptive audience."--The New York Times Book Review
"The work in these five hundred or so pages has been one of the saving graces of poetry in our time, as beautiful and moving as it is artful and accomplished. This collected edition will see a reader through quiet evenings and noisy Metro commutes, indeed through one's whole life."--The Washington Post Book World
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RICHARD WILBUR, one of America's most beloved poets, has served as poet laureate of the United States. He has received the National Book Award, two Pulitzer Prizes, the National Arts Club medal of honor for literature, and a number of translation prizes, including two Bollingen Prizes and two awards from PEN.
Blackberries for Amelia Fringing the woods, the stone walls, and the lanes, Old thickets everywhere have come alive, Their new leaves reaching out in fans of five From tangles overarched by this year's canes. They have their flowers too, it being June, And here or there in brambled dark-and-light Are small, five-petaled blooms of chalky white, As random-clustered and as loosely strewn As the far stars, of which we now are told That ever faster do they bolt away, And that a night may come in which, some say, We shall have only blackness to behold. But I shall see the August weather spur Berries to ripen where the flowers were-- Dark berries, savage-sweet and worth the wait-- And there will come the moment to be quick And save some from the birds, and I shall need Two pails, old clothes in which to stain and bleed, And a grandchild to talk with while we pick.
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.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.
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