Visions That Call the Reader: Images and Theme in "Love Calls Us to the Things of This World" Anonymous College

In Richard Wilbur’s poem “Love Calls us to the Things of This World,” there are many aspects of the poem that are interesting and effective. These include imagery, the theological themes of the poem, and the word choices Wilbur used. These features profoundly affect a reader's response to the poem, and have also been present in professional scholars’ analyses of his work; in particular, the poem is very effective and engaging when strong images were used.

Word-pictures arise from the very first line of Wilbur's writing: “The eyes open to a cry of pulleys, / And spirited from sleep, the astounded soul / Hangs for a moment bodiless and simple” (Wilbur, 2004). What is interesting about this example of imagery is that it provides a picture of something that is essentially internal or spiritual and therefore difficult to picture: the opening lines refer to the soul as it is called into being. Major critics and scholars have also noted Wilbur’s use of imagery, which they call ekphrasis, “…the verbal depiction of a visual object or artwork…” (Jessar, 1999, p. 91). This is a specific use of images to convey something more complex than merely what is seen. Such a feature is precisely what makes Wilbur’s poem so effective: he tries to...