Quote:
Originally posted by Tom:
Where could I find thoughts on Wilbur. For some reason I repeatedly read him and don't get a whole lot. To me, he sounds like someone who isn't really going to let you know who he is, like an actor. I don't seem to learn much from him. Block-heads like me are slow learners, but at least I listen, or try to.
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Wilbur is fairly reticent in his poetry about the details of his life -- he is almost the opposite of 'confessional'. I don't agree that he's like an actor -- I think he's more like a philosopher -- one for whom seemingly very abstract ideas are quite real and personal.
You could look at "For C" in _Mayflies_ -- it is very personal in a way, and yet is still quite reticent. Also "This Pleasing Anxious Being" -- three poems about his childhood (also in Mayflies).
Wilbur is always striving for generality -- he's trying to speak for all of us, not to get across his own very particular point of view. (Which is not to say that he doesn't have a particular point of view.)
Well, that's how it seems to me -- he might not like that way of putting it.