Richard Wilbur Research Paper

Mary Novak
Mrs. Gaitan-Martin
AP English IV
22 October 2015
Richard Wilbur
Being published since the age of eight, he is a truly successful writer. He is a renowned poet, translator, and was the second United States poet laureate. Richard Wilbur was born on March 1, 1921 in New York City and raised on a rural farm in North Caldwell, New Jersey. Wilbur grew up writing. He started out writing poems as a young boy and through college he “ worked on the school newspaper as a student” (Richard Wilbur Biography - Poem Hunter). In 1942, He graduated from the University of Massachusetts before joining the United States Army to fight in World War II in 1943. During his service, he originally “was in training as a U.S. Army cryptographer” but was later

Wilbur states that “Most of [his] poems are made out of accumulated thoughts and feelings and perceptions” (Poet Richard Wilbur's Letter About "The Death of a Toad). He writes on how he views things, also on the experiences he has had such as things concerning his childhood which was filled with long days on a farm. Also, some of his poems are motivated by his travels and the great depression. Influence also stems from being faced with combat. A prime example of how field action influenced his work is in his poem The Death of a Toad which was written in 1950. Wilbur was mowing a lawn one day and “mortally injured a toad,” then he went straight into writing about how the toad was injured and how it was gruesome yet elegant; he was “just out of military service” at the time (Poet Richard Wilbur's Letter About "The Death of a

According to Richard Wilbur himself, the toad is “representing the primal energies of the Earth, afflicted by the sprawl of our human dominion” (Poet Richard Wilbur's Letter About "The Death of a Toad”). The imagery of “A final glade” and “misted and ebullient seas” is royal and mystical in order to uplift and glorify the toad which represents the earth and its journey but these images contrast with the jarring images of human malady such as “Chewed and clipped” and “Castrate lawn” of the toad’s conclusion (Wilbur, Richard). The first two lines of the poem introduces a shift. The first two lines are of how the mower has mutilated the toad’s leg which represents the damage humans have caused to the earth. Wilbur’s poems have a ”painterly beginning to many of them, as though [he] set a scene in still-life and then start it into motion” (Davidson, Peter). Then raucous tone shifts into one of admiration for the representation of the earth. Humans have damaged the majesty of the