1. a narrative poem by Richard Wilbur page 708
“The Writer”
a narrative poem
by Richard Wilbur
page 708

2. Notes Who is the speaker in this poem?
a parent (father)
What is the speaker’s daughter doing as poem begins?
Trying to write a story
The story of the starling’s successful efforts to free itself can be interpreted as…
The importance of continuing to try even after you fail…
Speaker remembers the story of the trapped starling as he listens to his daughter type because…
memory of the trapped bird relates to his daughter’s struggle to writing and her need to overcome them on her own

3. Inference made about the speaker’s message from the lines:
In the lines:
Young as she is, the stuff
of her life is a great cargo, and some of it heavy:
I wish her a lucky passage.
What is the life of the speaker’s daughter compared to?
A trip or journey on a boat/ship; her “stuff” what she is working through as a young writer and the things that are important to her as adolescent = “cargo” baggage
To whom does the speaker directly address at the end of the poem when he says, “I wish/What I wished you before, but harder?” What does he wish?
His daughter
For her to have a “safe passage” but “harder”– if her life is too easy then she will not be strong enough
Inference made about the speaker’s message from the lines:
It is always a matter, my darling,
Of life or death, as I had forgotten.
Most important is to stay alive– her writing is important to her