The+Writer+(by+Richard+Wilbur)

=The Writer = =[|The Writer] =  By [| Richard Wilbur] b. 1921 Richard Wilbur

In her room at the prow of the house Where light breaks, and the windows are tossed with linden, My daughter is writing a story.

I pause in the stairwell, hearing From her shut door a commotion of typewriter-keys Like a chain hauled over a gunwale.

Young as she is, the stuff Of her life is a great cargo, and some of it heavy: I wish her a lucky passage.

But now it is she who pauses, As if to reject my thought and its easy figure. A stillness greatens, in which

<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">The whole house seems to be thinking, <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">And then she is at it again with a bunched clamor <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">Of strokes, and again is silent.

<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">I remember the dazed starling <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">Which was trapped in that very room, two years ago; <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">How we stole in, lifted a sash

<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">And retreated, not to affright it; <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">And how for a helpless hour, through the crack of the door, <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">We watched the sleek, wild, dark

<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">And iridescent creature <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">Batter against the brilliance, drop like a glove <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">To the hard floor, or the desk-top,

<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">And wait then, humped and bloody, <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">For the wits to try it again; and how our spirits <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">Rose when, suddenly sure,

<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">It lifted off from a chair-back, <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">Beating a smooth course for the right window <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">And clearing the sill of the world.

<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">It is always a matter, my darling, <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">Of life or death, as I had forgotten. I wish <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">What I wished you before, but harder.