Richard Wilbur's "The Writer": Critical Summary

Introduction:

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“The art of writing is the art of discovering what you believe in”, said Gustave Flaubert. Richard Wilbur, the second Poet Laureate of the United States of America, in the poem “The Writer” reflects on this art of writing, through his daughter’s act of writing.  The poem ruminates on a father watching over his daughter’s tryst with the writing process, even as she is seen typing out a story on her typewriter. The poem thereby, addresses the process of writing, as seen from the perspective of the father, and the emotions, memories and nostalgia that it triggers in him even as he sees his daughter typing out a story in her bedroom upstairs. Although parent-child relationships form a part of the poem’s fabric, the central theme of the poem, is, however, the difficulties and the responsibilities of being a writer.

 The Intricate Bond between Father and Daughter:

At a particular point in time, when, the daughter grows up, the father finds it necessary to detach himself from his daughter. Instead of a selfish and possessive love that he had all along for his daughter, the father had the maturity and the understanding to detach the emotional and selfish love, in order to allow the daughter to shape her own individuality by herself.

The Metaphor of the Ship and the Sterling:

The metaphor of the ship highlights the vast, unknown future into which the daughter has to set sail. Hence, the house is compared to a ship, and the daughter is like a “chain hauled over a gun-wale”, shut in her room, typing out her story. It is the chain that is holding or preventing the ship from moving. Symbolically, his daughter is also trapped in her room with her work and with the noises of the typewriter.

Wilbur continues on the entrapment metaphor through the sterling, a bird, which was, a few years ago, locked in the same room. Yet again, the father and the daughter were watching the trapped bird as it struggled hard to escape from the room. To the father, his daughter is like the bird, and the bird is like the daughter, struggling, not only with her life but also with her story – a story that will create a message for humanity.

Analogy between the Sterling and the Daughter:

Finally the bird makes good its escape, by “beating a smooth course for the right window, and clearing the sill of the world”. The right window could symbolically mean to imply the right opportunity for the girl or for the bird to get out into the world. Like the starling cleared all its difficulties, the father wishes his daughter too would learn to soar high into the world to make meaning of her life, by getting over all her difficulties. The trapped bird, could also mean to highlight the ‘writer’s block’ that the daughter suffers from, and from which she needs to come out, to clear the sill of the world.  Wilbur points to the difficulties in the life of her daughter, by saying that, “the stuff of her life is a great cargo”, and reveals his love and affection for his daughter when he wishes her ‘a safe passage’.

Conclusion:

Thus, Wilbur highlights the complexities involved in the creative process, and reflects on the profound love between the speaker and his daughter, and about how complex and difficult it is to create a message. Hence, according to Wilbur, if a writer is shaped by his experience, then, a story is the culmination of the writer’s desperate struggles in life.

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