{"id":2980,"date":"2014-03-01T15:04:24","date_gmt":"2014-03-01T22:04:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rayharvey.org\/?p=2980"},"modified":"2015-08-24T14:36:47","modified_gmt":"2015-08-24T20:36:47","slug":"greatest-living-american-poet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rayharvey.org\/index.php\/2014\/03\/greatest-living-american-poet\/","title":{"rendered":"Greatest Living American Poet?"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Richard Purdy Wilbur — American poet and literary translator, second Poet Laureate of the United States and Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress (1987), two-time recipient of the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry (1957 and again in 1989), New York City native who published his first poem when he was only eight-years-old — was born March 1st, 1921. <\/p>\n

He is 93 years young today. <\/p>\n

A good argument can be made that he is America’s greatest living poet. <\/p>\n

I, for one, have been influenced by several of his poems. <\/p>\n

He’s a formal (sometimes neo-formal) poet whose language is modern and almost always intelligible — a relative rarity in that bucal-fecal carnival called modern poetry<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Here’s a poem of his I first read many years ago, one that’s remained among my all-time favorites — a lesser-known poem, to be sure, every line of which rhymes — about a toad upon whom a freak accident falls. What’s always moved me most about this poem is the dignity that Richard Wilbur gives to his little guy:
\n<\/br><\/p>\n

Death of a Toad<\/b><\/p>\n

A toad the power mower caught,
\nChewed and clipped of a leg, with a hobbling hop has got
\nTo the garden verge, and sanctuaried him
\nUnder the cineraria leaves, in the shade
\nOf the ashen and heartshaped leaves, in a dim,
\nLow, and a final glade.<\/p>\n

The rare original heartsblood goes,
\nSpends in the earthen hide, in the folds and wizenings, flows
\nIn the gutters of the banked and staring eyes. He lies
\nAs still as if he would return to stone,
\nAnd soundlessly attending, dies
\nToward some deep monotone,<\/p>\n

Toward misted and ebullient seas
\nAnd cooling shores, toward lost Amphibia’s emperies.
\nDay dwindles, drowning and at length is gone
\nIn the wide and antique eyes, which still appear
\nTo watch, across the castrate lawn,
\nThe haggard daylight steer.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

<\/br><\/p>\n

Happy Birthday, Richard Wilbur.\"Screen<\/a><\/p>\n

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Richard Purdy Wilbur — American poet and literary translator, second Poet Laureate of the United States and Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress (1987), two-time recipient of the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry (1957 and again in 1989), New York City native who published his first poem when he was only eight-years-old — was … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Greatest Living American Poet?”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[1209],"tags":[2345,2347,1220,2346],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rayharvey.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2980"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rayharvey.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rayharvey.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rayharvey.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rayharvey.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2980"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rayharvey.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2980\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rayharvey.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2980"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rayharvey.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2980"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rayharvey.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2980"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}