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Originally Posted by marly youmans
That Wilbur anecdote! Of course, it says something about the strength and beauty of his work. But surely it also says something of interest about coming up as a poet in a certain place and time, with a certain sort of Northeastern education and teaching career--having that wonderful world where poetry mattered to many people, knowing Frost and Stevens and so on. I've read interviews where he talked about the poets of his generation, particularly Bishop and Lowell, and about Frost and Stevens, but don't know so much about the other elements.
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Marly, when you read the correspondence of Bishop and Lowell, you will find that they had no great opinion of the young Wilbur's poetry. I believe everybody starts from nowhere and makes it on his own.