SOURCE: Edgecombe, Rodney Stenning. “The Mind-Reader, New Poems (1976).” In A Reader's Guide to the Poetry of Richard Wilbur, pp. 122-38. Tuscaloosa Alabama, United States: The University of Alabama Press, 1995.

The follow essay provides an overview of Wilbur's 1976 work, The Mind-Reader and considers “the strategic failure” of Wilbur's prophetic stance.

Wilbur's 1976 volume is, like its predecessor, divided into sections, one of which is occupied solely by the eponymous poem. As before, I shall start with this, the dominant piece. Because it also deals with the control and shaping of consciousness, “The Mind-Reader” (NCP, p. 106) bears some resemblance to “Walking to Sleep,” except that here it is not the poet who guides the reader half-hypnotically into ways of seeing, but a clairvoyant who tries to articulate the nature of his gift. Mary Kinzie has distinguished Wilbur's poem from Browning's Mr. Sludge, “The Medium” by pointing out that while Mr. Sludge...