Atlantis by Wystan Auden is the great syllabic poem of the past century. But Wilbur has written three poems in Haiku stanza which are contenders. Auden's poem is fully rhymed (or slant rhymed). Wilbur's stanzas are rhymed ABA. Both poets give the hearer something to satisfy the ear. Marianne Moore defended her syllabics on the grounds that her "ear" could hear seventeen syllables. Gimme a break. It is prose lineated into precisely minced pieces, meat for the cutting board. I memorized Fern Hill when I was fifteen and never saw it was syllabic. E-Citizens, might it derive its majesty from its music? Tim
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