Synopses & Reviews
Poetry lovers and critics will rejoice at the news of this collection from Richard Wilbur, the legendary poet and translator who was called “a hero to a new generation of critics” by the
New York Times Book Review, and whose work continues to be masterful, accomplished, whimsical, fresh, and important.
A yellow-striped, green measuring worm opens Anterooms, a collection filled with poems that are classic Wilbur, that play with myth and form and examine the human condition through reflections on nature and love. Anterooms also features masterly translations from Mallarmés “The Tomb of Edgar Allan Poe,” a previously unpublished Verlaine poem, two poems by Joseph Brodsky, and thirty-seven of Symphosiuss clever Latin riddles.
Whether he is considering a snow shovel and domestic life or playfully considering that “Inside homeowner is the word meow,” Wilburs new collection is sure to delight everyone from longtime devotees to casual poetry readers. Exploring the interplay between the everyday and the mythic, the sobering and the lighthearted, Anterooms is nothing less than an event in poetic history and a remarkable addition to a masters oeuvre.
Review
"[Wilbur] stood for decades in the front rank of American poets who know how to use traditional forms: his confident rhymes and stanzas are second to none, their poise perhaps unsurpassed since Frost, and like Frost he can combine smooth popular appeal with a startling dark side. . . . This volume's gems measure up to Wilbur's high standards." —
Publishers Weekly"Richard Wilburs imagination has long regarded life in the bud—the seedling, the fledgling, the sprout, the egg. Approaching ninety, this American master is ever more elegantly brooding over beginnings, as in the ‘clenched bloom of ‘A Pasture Poem in this new volume. His flowering never ceases to unfold." —Mary Jo Salter
"When the Roman poet Horace described what a master poet does, he was describing what the American master poet Richard Wilbur does in his wonderful new book. Theres perfection of music and utterance everywhere in these brave, witty, radiant new poems. Theres exaltation here. He makes it look like childs play." —David Ferry
"In 1947, Richard Wilbur broke into the literary big leagues with his stunning first collection of poems, The Beautiful Changes; and as Anterooms demonstrates, he is still regularly hitting the ball out of the park sixty-three years later. I cant think of any other American author who has written so wonderfully well, decade after decade. These remarkable new poems feature his characteristic genius for the right word and for metaphors that startle with their freshness and accuracy. And the poems remind us that his singular achievement has resulted not only from his masterful and continually maturing craftsmanship, but also and even more so, from his appreciative attention to the physical universe and his sympathy with those who inhabit it." —Timothy Steele
"A new collection by our greatest living poet is cause for wonder and gratitude. Wilbur searches both the natural world and the human heart for hard truths he renders with a matchless grace. Anterooms bursts with a ripened and rueful joy. This is a book not just for your shelves but for the ages." —J. D. McClatchy
"For a long time now, Richard Wilbur has reigned as our finest lyric poet. The title still belongs to him, as Anterooms (what a joy!) proves several times over." —X. J. Kennedy
Synopsis
In Praise of Anterooms
"A new collection by our greatest living poet is cause for wonder and gratitude. Wilbur searches both the natural world and the human heart for hard truths he renders with a matchless grace. Anterooms bursts with a ripened and rueful joy. This is a book not just for your shelves but for the ages." —J. D. McClatchy
"Richard Wilbur's imagination has long regarded life in the bud--the seedling, the fledgling, the sprout, the egg. His flowering never ceases to unfold." -- Mary Jo Salter
"There's perfection of music and utterance everywhere in these brave, radiant, exalted
new poems." -- David Ferry
"For a long time now, Richard Wilbur has reigned as our finest lyric poet. The title still belongs to him, as Anterooms (what a joy!) proves several times over." -- X.J. Kennedy
"In 1947, Richard Wilbur broke into the literary big leagues with his stunning first collection of poems, The Beautiful Changes; and as Anterooms demonstrates, he is still regularly hitting the ball out of the park sixty-three years later"—Timothy Steele
Synopsis
A new collection of poetry, translations, light verse, and riddles.
Synopsis
A major event in poetic history and a remarkable addition to a masters oeuvre
Anterooms is the first new volume in a decade from this Pultizer Prize-winning, former Poet Laureate of the United States. Here, Richard Wilbur continues to explore the interplay between the everyday and the mythic, the sobering and the lighthearted. These twenty-two poems and translations are accompanied thirty-seven delightful riddles translated from the Latin, making up a collection that is masterful, accomplished, whimsical, fresh, and important.
Rejoice at the news of this collection from a legendary poet and translator who was called “a hero to a new generation” by the New York Times Book Review and whose work was called "one of the saving graces to poetry in our time" by the Washington Post.
About the Author
RICHARD WILBUR, one of Americas most beloved poets, has served as poet laureate of the United States. He has received the National Book Award, two Pulitzer Prizes, the National Arts Club medal of honor for literature, and a number of translation prizes, including two Bollingen Prizes and two awards from PEN.