SOURCE: Cummins, Paul F. “‘Here At the Fountainside’: The Human Condition.” In Richard Wilbur: A Critical Essay, pp. 30-8. Grand Rapids, Michigan: William B. Eerdmans, 1971.

In the following essay, the author considers the paradox of affirming life amid suffering and deprivation at the center of poems such as “Beasts,” “Still, Citizen Sparrow,” “Ballade for the Duke of New Orleans,” and “A Voice from Under the Table.”

Although some critics have accused Richard Wilbur of preciosity, I think it is clear that his poetry reflects a tough-minded confrontation with the timeless problems of human experience. To Wilbur, the cycle of love begetting life followed inevitably by death is each man's inheritance, yet he is not bitter or despairing over this situation. It is man's imperfection which gives him the possibility of importance. It is both man's fate and his blessing that he must work out his destiny amid imperfection...