in 1987, and twice received the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry
, in 1957 and again in 1989.
Wilbur was born in New York City
and grew up in North Caldwell, New Jersey
. He graduated from Amherst College
in 1942 and then served in the United States Army
from 1943 to 1945 during World War II
. After the Army and graduate school at Harvard University
, Wilbur taught at Wesleyan University
for two decades and at Smith College
for another decade.
Try to remember this: what you projectIs what you will perceive; what you perceiveWith any passion, be it love or terror,May take on whims and powers of its own.Therefore a numb and grudging circumspectionWill serve you best — unless you overdo it,Watching your step too narrowly, refusingTo specify a world, shrinking your purviewTo a tight vision of your inching shoes,Which may, as soon as you come to think, be crossingAn unseen gorge upon a rotten trestle.
What you hope forIs that at some point of the pointless journey, Indoors or out, and when you least expect it,Right in the middle of your stride, like that, So neatly that you never feel a thing,The kind assassin Sleep will draw a beadAnd blow your brains out.
What is the opposite of two? A lonely me, a lonely you.
A thrush, because I'd been wrong,Burst rightly into songIn a world not vague, not lonely,Not governed by me only.
Founded on rock and facing the night-fouled seaA beacon blinks at its own brilliance,Over and over with cutlass gazeSolving the Gordian waters ...