Criticism > Poetry > Wilbur, Richard - J. M. Reibetanz (essay spring 1998)

Wilbur, Richard - J. M. Reibetanz (essay spring 1998)

J. M. Reibetanz (essay spring 1998)

SOURCE: Reibetanz, J. M. “The Reflexive Art of Richard Wilbur.” University of Toronto Quarterly 67, no. 2 (spring 1998): 592-612.

[In the following essay, Reibetanz posits that Wilbur “has not so much looked into his heart to write, as he has plumbed the verbal medium” in authoring poetry that is aware of, and even addresses, itself.]

Richard Wilbur's critics have charted his ‘distinctive voice-print’ (Leithauser, 286) with considerable, though divided, commentary on what is agreed to be at the heart of his craft—his handling of language.1 The debate has revolved around the question of whether Wilbur's delight in the urbane wordscape of the poem somehow prevents him from touching the suffering of the world around him. I propose to explore a characteristic signature of his wordscapes which, I think, pre-empts argument on the divergence of word from world, the supposed...

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