{"id":8734,"date":"2017-10-16T17:18:49","date_gmt":"2017-10-17T00:18:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/?p=8734"},"modified":"2017-10-29T11:21:28","modified_gmt":"2017-10-29T18:21:28","slug":"other-matters-richard-wilbur-rip","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/2017\/10\/other-matters-richard-wilbur-rip\/","title":{"rendered":"Other Matters: Richard Wilbur, RIP"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"The poet Richard Wilbur died over the weekend. He was 96. A former poet laureate of The United States and the winner of two Pulitzer Prizes, Wilbur was praised and criticized for the consistency of form in his poems, which were beloved, and sometimes condemned, in the poetry world for being orderly and following classic styles; sonnet, terza rima<\/em>, couplet, et al, but\u00e2\u20ac\u201dto my knowledge\u00e2\u20ac\u201dnever free verse or blank verse.<\/p>\n

When I first read it decades ago, this poem became a favorite among Wilbur’s work.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

MIND<\/strong><\/p>\n

Mind in its purest play is like some bat
\nThat beats about in caverns all alone,
\nContriving by a kind of senseless wit
\nNot to conclude against a wall of stone.<\/p>\n

It has no need to falter or explore;
\nDarkly it knows what obstacles are there,
\nAnd so may weave and flitter, dip and soar
\nIn perfect courses through the blackest air.<\/p>\n

And has this simile a like perfection?
\nThe mind is like a bat. Precisely. Save
\nThat in the very happiest intellection
\nA graceful error may correct the cave.<\/p>\n

“\u00a9Richard Wilbur, 1963 The Poems of Richard Wilbur<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

National Public Radio\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s obituary of Wilbur<\/a> includes two more of his finest poems. He is worth knowing.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The poet Richard Wilbur died over the weekend. He was 96. A former poet laureate of The United States and the winner of two Pulitzer Prizes, Wilbur was praised and criticized for the consistency of form in his poems, which were beloved, and sometimes condemned, in the poetry world for being orderly and following classic […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":8735,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-8734","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-main","8":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8734","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8734"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8734\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8735"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8734"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8734"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8734"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}