Because everyone loves a good story
“The Writer”: A Poem by Richard Wilbur
Today I’d like to share with you a poem by Richard Wilbur. If you were around last year on Past Watchful Dragons, you’ll know I shared many of my favorite poems with you then, so we’ll consider today a bonus poem.
I found this in a post from author Jonathan Rogers. Wilbur’s poem is short and vivid. It reminds me of myself when I was a younger writer…and, to be honest, it reminds me of my current writer self, too. As the title suggests, he gears the poem toward writers, but I think the application is wider than that. Whatever your creative outlet, I think you’ll relate to Wilbur’s imagery of a starling, a ship, and the struggles of artistic expression.
To all my fellow creators out there, I hope this post give you the courage to “[clear] the sill of the world.” Best of luck!
3 Comments on ““The Writer”: A Poem by Richard Wilbur”
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I don’t understand what makes this a poem. The definition of a poem is any writing with a regular rhythm pattern. Prose is any writing without a regular rhythm pattern. This has no regular rhythm pattern.
That’s a great question! Traditional poetry does have predictable meter and rhyme, but there’s also blank verse that has a specific rhythm but no rhyme (like Shakespeare and Milton) and free verse (no rhythm or rhyme but lots of poetic devices like consonance, assonance, figures of speech, and comparisons). Since this poem is an extended metaphor, I guess that’s why it’s considered a poem. But free verse can be a bit of a gray area for sure!
Love it. I grew up writing with a manual typewriter on an old fashioned school desk that had a hole for an ink bottle where I kept pencils.