The Writer By Richard Wilbur

535 Words3 Pages
Ships and sailing have been used as metaphors by many writers over the years. Perhaps it is because, like life, the oceans and seas of this world offer hidden dangers and wonders alike. One must navigate the phases of life like a captain navigates the sea, trying to make the best choices with the options before them. So, it is no wonder that Richard Wilbur likens the life of a child to a ship in his poem “The Writer”. Mr. Wilbur uses the ship metaphors to describe the daughter, the environment she is in, as well as what observations the father is making. “Where light breaks, and the windows are tossed with linden,” hints at waves, breaking and tossing in the sea, this is also the explanation of the setting in which the daughter is currently. In the second stanza the line “Like a chain hauled over a gunwale,” not only describes the sounds of the typewriters keys to poet’s ear, but could also be implies the raising of an anchor which is seen as the beginning of a new journey for the daughter. That thought is supported in the last line of the third stanza “I wish her a lucky passage.” The father in the poem sees his daughter at the prow of the ship, the forefront of the vessel, ploughing her way through the waters of life “In her room at the prow of the house.” She is not at the helm of the ship navigating the currents of her life, but rather she is at the front of the ship watching it cut through the water. This implies that at the moment she is not in charge of where her life is going. It also defines that the reference to a ship is not necessarily meant that she is sailing through her life, but rather that the ship is the vessel of her life. The poet enhances this idea quite succinctly in third stanza, “Young as she is, the stuff of her life is a great cargo, and some of it heavy:” These lines state that her life isn’t the journey of the ship, but rather
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