Richard Wilbur has skillfully translated various poems and plays from languages such as French, Russian, Spanish, and Italian. His translation work includes sections of the Old English epic Beowulf. Among the Russian poets he has translated into English is Joseph Brodsky, who has also translated Wilbur’s poetry into Russian. Both poets share a similar style in their use of rhyme and meter, elements that are notoriously challenging to translate. Wilbur’s translation of Brodsky’s “The Funeral of Bob” can be found in New and Collected Poems as well as Brodsky’s A Part of Speech.

Robert Frost (1874–1963) significantly influenced Wilbur's work. Like Wilbur, Frost hailed from a New England background, drawing creative inspiration from his surroundings. The two poets are noted for their meticulous attention to natural detail and their use of structured rhyme and meter. Frost has a wealth of published works, and a good starting point is his Selected Poems.

Denise Levertov (1923–1998) is another poet who has condensed a famous narrative into a shorter poem. Her piece “A Tree Telling of Orpheus” captures a moment from the ancient Greek myth of Orpheus, whose enchanting lyre music was said to compel trees to uproot themselves to follow and listen to him. In her poem, a tree recounts this extraordinary event. “A Tree Telling of Orpheus” is included in Levertov’s collection Relearning the Alphabet, first published by New Directions in 1966.

Wilbur also authored books for children, including Opposites: Poems and Drawings, which he illustrated himself. These poems, inspired by a wordplay game he played with his children, are structured as riddles in a question-and-answer format, such as: “What’s the opposite of two? A lonely me, a lonely you.” He later wrote More Opposites and Runaway Opposites, the latter featuring collage illustrations by Henrik Drescher.

As a young man teaching at Harvard after World War II, Richard Wilbur was acquainted with many leading poets of his era. Among his peers, it was Elizabeth Bishop who had the most profound impact on him, teaching him "the joy of putting a poem together.” The critic M. L. Rosenthal highlights the shared traits of Wilbur and Bishop, describing their poetry as possessing “elegance, grace, precision, quiet intensity of phrasing.” While Bishop’s poetry is frequently anthologized, her complete works can be found in The Complete Poems, 1927–1979.