The Catbird's Song: Prose Pieces, 1963-1995The Catbird's Song is a selection of prose pieces, on a variety of topics, by one of the most distinguished poets and translators of our times, Richard Wilbur. These lectures, letters, reviews, addresses, prefaces, and interviews-what Wilbur calls the "prose by-products of a poet's life"-not only reveal the ideas and concerns that inform his remarkable oeuvre but also offer fresh takes on the works and lives of poets we thought we knew, poets we ought to know, and much more. Here, then, are his appreciations of Poe, Milton, Tennyson, and Longfellow; paeans to his contemporaries Elizabeth Bishop, Mae Swenson, and John Ciardi; an introduction to the work of the neglected poet Witter Bynner; his comments on some of his own poems; and thoughts on the art of translation. Throughout all, Wilbur's voice resonates with clarity, reason, and authority. |
From inside the book
Results 1-3 of 30
Page 3
... gives us some sort of countermovement , wherein it is said that in death one has the company of the great of the past ... give an air of bad faith or two - mindedness to the poem's biblical echoes and its sugges- tions of individual ...
... gives us some sort of countermovement , wherein it is said that in death one has the company of the great of the past ... give an air of bad faith or two - mindedness to the poem's biblical echoes and its sugges- tions of individual ...
Page 19
... give us partic- ularly clear and trustworthy keys to Poe's suggestive methods . It is not only " William Wilson ... gives fair warning that it is going to be two stories at once - the literal story of a tortured prisoner and the symbolic ...
... give us partic- ularly clear and trustworthy keys to Poe's suggestive methods . It is not only " William Wilson ... gives fair warning that it is going to be two stories at once - the literal story of a tortured prisoner and the symbolic ...
Page 170
... give all those things , and also give pleasure in the process ; to be enjoyable is not necessarily to be trivial . A more valid reservation might come from the sort of people who think of art in terms of progress and experiment , and ...
... give all those things , and also give pleasure in the process ; to be enjoyable is not necessarily to be trivial . A more valid reservation might come from the sort of people who think of art in terms of progress and experiment , and ...
Contents
Poe and the Art of Suggestion | 7 |
Longfellow | 26 |
The Persistence of Riddles | 32 |
Copyright | |
7 other sections not shown
Common terms and phrases
American answer appear asked beauty become begins bird Bynner called clear close continually course critic dark death described dream Earth effect Eleonora English enigma example experience expression fact feel figure final give given hand hear heart heaven human idea imaginative John kind knowledge language later leaves less letter light lines living look lyric matter mean memory mind nature never notes object once passion perhaps plays pleasure Poe's poem poet poet's poetic poetry possible present questions reader reason rhyme riddle seems seen sense Song sort soul sound speaks spirit story suggestion sure tells things thought translation trees turn Ulysses verse voice whole wish writing written wrote