New And Collected Poems Quotes

“Security, alas, can give
A threatening impression;
Too much defense-initiative
Can prompt aggression.”
― Richard Wilbur, New And Collected Poems: A Poetry Collection―A Pulitzer Prize Winner

“But I am weary of
The winter way of loving things for reasons.

— Richard Wilbur, from “Winter Spring,” New and Collected Poems (HBJ, 1988)”
― Richard Wilbur, New And Collected Poems: A Poetry Collection―A Pulitzer Prize Winner

“Apology"

A word sticks in the wind's throat;
A wind-launch drifts in the swells of rye;
Sometimes, in broad silence,
The hanging apples distill their darkness.

You, in a green dress, calling, and with brown hair,
Who come by the field-path now, whose name I say
Softly, forgive me love if I also call you
Wind's word, apple-heart, haven of grasses.”
― Richard Wilbur, New And Collected Poems: A Poetry Collection―A Pulitzer Prize Winner