C.G. thanks for taking the time to add these observations to a thread that has become, I think, the most interesting one yet on this board.
The anthologists pick from the weakest period. Go figure. But yes, in comparison with other work done under the same temporal and cultural stars, the chosen poems aren't bad. They just aren't up to the standard Francis set elsewhere.
I would join you in suspicion that Francis personally excluded "That Light" from the CCollected Poems. I surmise that his motivation would not be displeasure with the poem itself, but rather with the reactions of readers. I do not think the author intended the light to symbolize Christ. In his autobiography, <u>The Trouble with Francis</u>, the author discusses his alienation from Christianity at great length. If readers mistook his intent, that would have been reason enough for him to pull the poem.
Wilbur is, of course, very much a Christian poet. For that reason, and many others, I am more inclined to contrast than compare him with Francis. But he and Francis share one significant trait: retaining intimacy with the muse late in life. Considering how long he lived, and how well he wrote in his last years, it does not strike me as much of a stretch to call his seventh decade "late middle age."
Historians will probably call the Twentieth Century the Late Middle Ages.
Alan Sullivan
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