A poem should not be like a Double-Crostic; it should not be the sort of puzzle in which you get nothing until you get it all. Art does not or should not work that way; we are not cheated of a symphony if we fail to react to some passage on the flute, and a good poem should yield itself more than once, offering the reader an early and sure purchase, and deepening repeatedly as he comes to know it better.
—Richard Wilbur
—Richard Wilbur
Monday, October 30, 2017