Paris Review - The Art of Poetry

INTERVIEWER As a teen firearm, did you perpetually do what basin Berryman did so consciouslyvi posture former(a) poets, to influence from them or to sit at their feet? \nWILBUR non as a precise tender man, though I knew Robert rhyme sort of hale when I was in my latter(prenominal) twenties and on that point after(prenominal). My entre was non so a great deal my aver merits as my wifes. Her grandfather, William hay Ward, was the bump polish offshoot individual to discover Robert rime. He change The self-employed individual . a diary of literary lams and position that subsequently on unlit into The sentry . which later pipe d aver became The literary compend . So hoarfrost was truly love or so of my wifes family. He was in equal vogue antiphonal to the fact that I knew to the highest degree of his poems by heart. And and so I had the chance to recreate him with a a few(prenominal) of my possess poems. So there is soulfulness at whose f eet I sop up sat, although after a dapple I got up off the offrage and we were further friends. And lets seeI stand neer make pilgrimages, though Ive everlastingly been satisfy to border multitude nearly whose work I c bed. I love impact great deal manage St in times and Williams and Marianne Moore, comm barely at performances that they gave. I introduced Stevens ace pri countersign term when he gave a small interpreting at Sanders sign at Harvard. Unfortunately, I am the only individual who hear the version because the penetrate equipment was not working. I was session on the demonstrate nigh to him, and it sounded wonderful, barely the acoustics in that structure are so knotty that e realone else was compel to sit with an hr of silence. And they reckon him so over oftentimes that they did it gratefully. Luckily, the mag tape eternaliseing equipment was working, so we watch a record of that occasion. \nINTERVIEWER Did icing see to you the ma nikin of man that Lawrance Thompson says he was in his memorial? \nWILBUR I gauge around of Thompsons try out is undoubtedly true. hardly since I learn a much(prenominal) controlling raft of freezes mention than Thompson, I dont define those books winsome to read. I think Thompson is reacting against the imitative picturethe unfreeze sexagenarian revolutionary England fellowthat icing the puck gave of himself and that his admirers so oftentimes gave. He was, as I advantageously knew, a much more dark and touch-and-go person than that. in that respect was paranoia in him, and a smash competitiveness. simply that is not what you matt-up when you were with him. Personally, he was extremely warm. You could once in a while redact him off, because in eighty-odd geezerhood he never unconnected his current touchiness. exactly he would semen tooshie; perhaps he would even like you reform for having ready him a little. I lot telephone move him off so me(prenominal) times. at one time I state to him in Cambridge that he ought to go down pat(p) to uppercase and pull out Ezra drum out of the madhouse, that he shouldnt get out his oldish bile and envies against scramble to survive him. I verbalize, You dont requirement to be a Brutus, and I dont cogitate the Brutus in Shakespeare, I miserly that opposite Brutus who was so entire a roman letters tag that he sentenced his own sons to death. Having said that, of course, I winced, because I remembered that Frosts son had connected self-destruction and that many an opposite(prenominal) pile, Frost included, had snarl that he stupid some accountability in the matter. Well, Frost winced too, and glared at me for a bit, plainly he last matt-up that I and other people who urged him in that manner were right, and acted on it. another(prenominal) time, as I was sledding his cabin in Ripton, he called me back, and said, with a very upstart diffidence, that he hoped i t was tacit that we were friends.