According to Romantic superstition, poets either flame out young or gutter into unheralded old age. A related notion holds that popularity is intrinsically vulgar and hence earned, always, by inferior poems. The facts largely argue against this mythology, and the accomplishments of Richard Wilbur, 67, make it look silly. For more than 40 years, Wilbur has written poetry that garnered both critical acclaim and public recognition, including a Pulitzer Prize and a National Book Award. He has taught at Harvard, Wellesley, Wesleyan and Smith, and generously given foreign authors an English-speaking readership, translating works by, among others, Anna Akhmatova, Jorge Luis...
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