Love Calls Us to the Things of This World Wilbur as Formalist

Richard Wilbur is known by many as a "formalist" poem. This term can have different meanings depending on its context, but for Wilbur, it often refers to the fact that he writes in conversation with what are called "inherited forms," or the patterns of poetic writing that have been handed down over the centuries in English-language verse. Wilbur was a formal genius, demonstrating a continued ability not just to bend the English language to different sonic templates, but also a capacity to use form to make poems mean in a different way. That is, form for Wilbur was not just an ornament to language—it was a way to push language in directions it might not otherwise go, thus finding meaning in unexpected places. Interestingly, although this poem is one of Wilbur's most famous, it isn't exactly "typical" of him, in that it does not have a set meter for its lines, nor a set line length for its stanzas. With that said, it's not quite "free" either—there are still some lines, like "To accept the waking body, saying now," that have within them the DNA of a line of iambic pentameter, the standard metrical line in English prosody (or the study of poetic rhythm). Thus, even when Wilbur is writing against the templates of the English tradition, he is also echoing some of its most common forms.