Collected Poems, 1943-2004

by Wilbur, Richard

• ISBN13: 9780156030793
• ISBN10: 0156030799
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2006-03-06
• Publisher: Houghton Miff

Summary

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.

Author Biography

RICHARD WILBUR has served as poet laureate of the United States. He has received the National Book Award, two Pulitzer Prizes, and the Bollingen Translation Prize. He lives in Cummington, Massachusetts, and Key West, Florida.

Table of Contents

AN INTRODUCTORY NOTE	xv
NEW POEMS (2004)
ONE
The Reader	5	(1)
Sir David Brewster's Toy	6	(1)
Security Lights, Key West	7	(1)
Man Running	8	(2)
Asides	10	(1)
Tanka	11	(1)
In Trackless Woods	12	(1)
The Sleepwalker	13	(2)
Green	15	(1)
Blackberries for Amelia	16	(3)
TWO
Twelve Riddles from Symphosius	19	(2)
To a Comedian	21	(1)
An Eightieth-Birthday Ballade for Anthony Hecht	22	(1)
Notes	23	(6)
MAYFLIES: NEW POEMS AND TRANSLATIONS (2000)
Changes
A Barred Owl	29	(1)
For C.	30	(1)
Zea	31	(1)
At Moorditch	32	(1)
Bonds	33	(1)
The Gambler	34	(1)
Three Tankas	35	(1)
On Lyman Flat	35	(1)
All Hallows' Eve	35	(1)
Wild Asters	35	(1)
Mayflies	36	(1)
A Short History	37	(1)
Fabrications	38	(2)
Signatures	40	(1)
Icons	41	(2)
Crow's Nests	43	(1)
STÉPHANE MALLARMÉ: Sea Breeze	44	(1)
NINA CASSIAN: Ballad of the Jack of Diamonds	45	(1)
Once	46	(1)
Bone Key	47	(1)
Personae	48	(1)
VALERI PETROV: A Cry from Childhood	49	(1)
VALERI PETROV: Photos from the Archives	50	(1)
A Digression	51	(1)
A Wall in the Woods: Cummington	52	(2)
1. "What is it for..."	52	(1)
2. "He will hear..."	52	(2)
Elsewhere	54	(1)
CHARLES BAUDELAIRE: The Albatross	55	(1)
CHARLES BAUDELAIRE: Correspondences	56	(1)
This Pleasing Anxious Being	57	(4)
1. "In no time you are back...	57	(1)
2. "The shadow of whoever..."	57	(1)
3. "Wild, lashing snow..."	58	(3)
Transformations
The Prologue to Molière's Amphitryon	61	(5)
DANTE ALIGHIERI: Canto xxv of the Inferno	66	(6)
Notes	72	(7)
NEW AND COLLECTED POEMS (1987)
ONE
The Ride	79	(1)
Gnomons	80	(1)
Alatus	81	(2)
Lying	83	(3)
On Having Mis-identified a Wild Flower	86	(1)
JOSEPH BRODSKY: Six Years Later	87	(2)
Leaving	89	(2)
The Catch	91	(2)
VINICIUS DE MORAES: Song	93	(1)
Icarium Mare	94	(2)
Some Riddles from Symphosius	96	(2)
Under a Tree	98	(1)
Wyeth's Milk Cans	99	(1)
For W.H. Auden	100	(1)
Orchard Trees, January	101	(1)
GUILLAUME APOLLINAIRE: Mirabeau Bridge	102	(1)
Trolling for Blues	103	(1)
Advice from the Muse	104	(2)
The Rule	106	(1)
A Fable	107	(1)
Transit	108	(1)
Shad-Time	109	(2)
Worlds	111	(1)
All That Is	112	(2)
A Finished Man	114	(1)
Hamlen Brook	115	(4)
TWO For Music
On Freedom's Ground	119	(8)
I. Back Then	119	(1)
II. Our Risen States	119	(1)
III. Like a Great Statue	120	(1)
IV. Come Dance	121	(1)
V. Immigrants Still	122	(5)
THE MIND-READER: NEW POEMS (1976)
ONE The Eye
A Storm in April	127	(1)
The Writer	128	(2)
To the Etruscan Poets	130	(1)
The Eye	131	(2)
Sleepless at Crown Point	133	(1)
Piccola Commedia	134	(2)
A Wedding Toast	136	(1)
March	137	(1)
In Limbo	138	(2)
A Sketch	140	(2)
Peter	142	(1)
Cottage Street, 1953	143	(1)
The Fourth of July	144	(2)
A Shallot	146	(1)
A Black Birch in Winter	147	(1)
For the Student Strikers	148	(1)
C Minor	149	(2)
To His Skeleton	151	(1)
John Chapman	152	(1)
April 5, 1974	153	(1)
Teresa	154	(1)
Children of Darkness	155	(4)
TWO
FRANÇOISE VILLON: Ballade of Forgiveness	159	(1)
JEAN DE LA FONTAINE: The Grasshopper and the Ant	160	(1)
JOACHIM DU BELLAY: Happy the Man	161	(1)
VOLTAIRE: To Madame du Chatelet	162	(5)
THREE
Flippancies	167	(1)
Two Riddles from Aldhelm	168	(1)
Rillons, Rillettes	169	(1)
The Prisoner of Zenda	170	(3)
FOUR
JOSEPH BRODSKY: The Funeral of Bobo	173	(2)
ANDREI VOZNESENSKY: Phone Booth	175	(2)
ANDREI VOZNESENSKY: An Arrow in the Wall	177	(2)
NIKOLAI MORSHEN: Two Poems	179	(4)
FIVE The Mind-Reader
The Mind-Reader	183	(5)
Notes	188	(7)
WALKING TO SLEEP: NEW POEMS AND TRANSLATIONS (1969)
ONE In the Field
The Lilacs	195	(2)
On the Marginal Way	197	(5)
Complaint zoo
Fern-Beds in Hampshire County	202	(1)
In a Churchyard	203	(2)
Seed Leaves	205	(2)
In the Field	207	(3)
A Wood	210	(1)
For Dudley	211	(2)
Running	213	(3)
I. 1933	213	(1)
II. Patriots' Day	213	(1)
III. Dodwells Road	214	(2)
Under Cygnus	216	(3)
TWO Thyme
Thyme Flowering among Rocks	219	(2)
A Miltonic Sonnet for Mr. Johnson on His	221	(1)
Refusal of Peter Hurd's Official Portrait A Riddle	222	(1)
Playboy	223	(1)
The Mechanist	224	(1)
The Agent	225	(3)
The Proof	228	(1)
A Late Aubade	229	(1)
Matthew VIII, 28 ff.	230	(1)
For K.R. on Her Sixtieth Birthday	231	(4)
THREE Walking to Sleep
Walking to Sleep	235	(6)
FOUR Translations
JORGE LUIS BORGES: Compass	241	(1)
JORGE LUIS BORGES: Everness	242	(1)
JORGE LUIS BORGES: Ewigkeit	243	(1)
ANNA AKHMATOVA: Lot's Wife	244	(1)
ANDREI VOZNESENSKY: Foggy Street	245	(2)
ANDREI VOZNESENSKY: Antiworlds	247	(2)
ANDREI VOZNESENSKY: Dead Still	249	(1)
CHARLES D'ORLEANS: Rondeau	250	(1)
FRANCOIS VILLON: Ballade of the Ladies of Time Past	251	(1)
FRANCOIS VILLON: Ballade in Old French	252	(1)
FRANCOIS VILLON: A Ballade to End With	253	(1)
Notes	254	(3)
ADVICE TO A PROPHET AND OTHER POEMS (1961)
Two Voices in a Meadow	257	(1)
Advice to a Prophet	258	(2)
Stop	260	(1)
Junk	261	(2)
Loves of the Puppets	263	(1)
A Summer Morning	264	(1)
A Hole in the Floor	265	(2)
JORGE GUILLÉN: The Horses	267	(1)
JORGE GUILLÉN: Death, from a Distance	268	(1)
She	269	(2)
Gemini	271	(1)
The Undead	272	(2)
October Maples, Portland	274	(1)
Eight Riddles from Symphosius	275	(2)
Shame	277	(1)
A Grasshopper	278	(2)
SALVATORE QUASIMODO: The Agrigentum Road	280	(1)
The Aspen and the Stream	281	(2)
A Fire-Truck	283	(1)
Someone Talking to Himself	284	(2)
In the Smoking-Car	286	(1)
Ballade for the Duke of Orleans	287	(1)
GÉRARD DE NERVAL: Antéros	288	(1)
To Ishtar	289	(1)
Pangloss's Song: A Comic-Opera Lyric	290	(2)
Two Quatrains for First Frost	292	(1)
Another Voice	293	(1)
MOLIÈRE: Tartuffe, Act I, Scene 4	294	(3)
Fall in Corrales	297	(1)
Next Door	298	(2)
A Christmas Hymn	300	(2)
Notes	302	(3)
THINGS OF THIS WORLD (1956)
Altitudes	305	(2)
Love Calls Us to the Things of This World	307	(2)
Sonnet	309	(1)
Piazza di Spagna, Early Morning	310	(1)
John Chrysostom	311	(1)
A Black November Turkey	312	(2)
Mind	314	(1)
After the Last Bulletins	315	(2)
Lamarck Elaborated	317	(1)
A Plain Song for Comadre	318	(1)
Merlin Enthralled	319	(2)
A Voice from under the Table	321	(2)
The Beacon	323	(2)
Statues	325	(1)
Looking into History	326	(2)
CHARLES BAUDELAIRE: L'Invitation au Voyage	328	(2)
Digging for China	330	(1)
FRANCIS JAMMES: A Prayer to Go to Paradise with the Donkeys	331	(2)
PHILIPPE DE THAUN: The Pelican	333	(2)
Apology	335	(1)
PAUL VALÉRY: Helen	336	(1)
Beasts	337	(1)
Exeunt	338	(1)
Marginalia	339	(1)
Boy at the Window	340	(1)
Speech for the Repeal of the McCarran Act	341	(1)
All These Birds	342	(2)
A Baroque Wall-Fountain in the Villa Sciarra	344	(3)
An Event	347	(1)
A Chronic Condition	348	(1)
The Mill	349	(1)
For the New Railway Station in Rome	350	(5)
CEREMONY AND OTHER POEMS (1950)
Then	355	(1)
Conjuration	356	(1)
"A World without Objects Is a Sensible Emptiness"	357	(1)
The Pardon	358	(1)
Part of a Letter	359	(1)
La Rose des Vents	360	(1)
Epistemology	361	(1)
Castles and Distances	362	(3)
Museum Piece	365	(1)
Ode to Pleasure	366	(2)
In the Elegy Season	368	(1)
Marché aux Oiseaux	369	(1)
Juggler	370	(1)
Parable	371	(1)
The Good Servant	372	(1)
Pity	373	(1)
The Sirens	374	(1)
Year's End	375	(1)
The Puritans	376	(1)
Grasse: The Olive Trees	377	(1)
The Avowal	378	(1)
The Gifts	379	(1)
Five Women Bathing in Moonlight	380	(1)
The Terrace	381	(2)
A Problem from Milton	383	(1)
A Glance from the Bridge	384	(1)
Clearness	385	(1)
Games One	386	(1)
Games Two	387	(1)
Beowulf	388	(2)
Still, Citizen Sparrow	390	(1)
Wellfleet: The House	391	(1)
The Death of a Toad	392	(1)
Driftwood	393	(2)
A Courtyard Thaw	395	(1)
Lament	396	(1)
Flumen Tenebrarum	397	(2)
From the Lookout Rock	399	(2)
To an American Poet Just Dead	401	(1)
Giacometti	402	(2)
He Was	404	(1)
A Simile for Her Smile	405	(1)
Ceremony	406	(3)
THE BEAUTIFUL CHANGES AND OTHER POEMS (1947)
Cicadas	409	(1)
Water Walker	410	(3)
Tywater	413	(1)
Mined Country	414	(2)
Potato	416	(2)
First Snow in Alsace	418	(1)
On the Eyes of an SS Officer	419	(1)
Place Pigalle	420	(1)
Violet and Jasper	421	(1)
The Peace of Cities	422	(1)
The Giaour and the Pacha	423	(1)
Up, Jack	424	(1)
In a Bird Sanctuary	425	(2)
June Light	427	(1)
A Song	428	(1)
The Walgh-Vogel	429	(1)
The Melongène	430	(1)
Objects	431	(2)
A Dutch Courtyard	433	(1)
My Father Paints the Summer	434	(1)
Folk Tune	435	(1)
Sun and Air	436	(1)
Two Songs in a Stanza of Beddoes'	437	(2)
The Waters	439	(2)
Superiorities	441	(1)
A Simplification	442	(1)
A Dubious Night	443	(1)
L'Etoile	444	(1)
Sunlight Is Imagination	445	(2)
&	447	(1)
O	448	(1)
The Regatta	449	(2)
Bell Speech	451	(1)
Poplar, Sycamore	452	(1)
Winter Spring	453	(1)
Attention Makes Infinity	454	(1)
Grace	455	(2)
Lightness	457	(1)
For Ellen	458	(1)
Caserta Garden	459	(2)
Praise in Summer	461	(1)
The Beautiful Changes	462	(1)
Notes	463	(2)
APPENDIX A: SHOW LYRICS
Oh, Happy We!	465	(3)
Glitter and Be Gay	468	(2)
The Ragpicker's Song	470	(3)
APPENDIX B: POEMS FOR CHILDREN AND OTHERS
Opposites	473	(42)
More Opposites	515	(44)
A Few Differences	559	(8)
The Disappearing Alphabet	567	(6)
The Pig in the Spigot	573	(6)
Permissions Acknowledgments	579	(2)
Title Index	581