Criticism > Poetry > Wilbur, Richard - Rodney Stenning Edgecombe (essay date 1995)

Wilbur, Richard - Rodney Stenning Edgecombe (essay date 1995)

Rodney Stenning Edgecombe (essay date 1995)

SOURCE: Edgecombe, Rodney Stenning. “The Mind-Reader, New Poems (1976).” In A Reader's Guide to the Poetry of Richard Wilbur, pp. 122-38. Tuscaloosa Alabama, United States: The University of Alabama Press, 1995.

[The follow essay provides an overview of Wilbur's 1976 work, The Mind-Reader and considers “the strategic failure” of Wilbur's prophetic stance.]

Wilbur's 1976 volume is, like its predecessor, divided into sections, one of which is occupied solely by the eponymous poem. As before, I shall start with this, the dominant piece. Because it also deals with the control and shaping of consciousness, “The Mind-Reader” (NCP, p. 106) bears some resemblance to “Walking to Sleep,” except that here it is not the poet who guides the reader half-hypnotically into ways of seeing, but a clairvoyant who tries to articulate the nature of his gift. Mary Kinzie has...

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