The Beautiful Changes
Richard Wilbur
5 10 15 |
One wading a Fall meadow finds on all sides The Queen Anne’s Lace lying like lilies On water; it glides So from the walker, it turns Dry grass to a lake, as the slightest shade of you Valleys my mind in fabulous blue Lucernes. The beautiful changes as a forest is changed By a chameleon’s tuning his skin to it; As a mantis, arranged On a green leaf, grows Into it, makes the leaf leafier, and proves Any greenness is deeper than anyone knows. Your hands hold roses always in a way that says They are not only yours; the beautiful changes In such kind ways, Wishing ever to sunder Things and things’ selves for a second finding, to lose For a moment all that it touches back to wonder. |
Boy at the Window
Richard Wilbur
5 10 15 |
Seeing the snowman standing all alone In dusk and cold is more than he can bear. The small boy weeps to hear the wind prepare A night of gnashings° and enormous moan. His tearful sight can hardly reach to where The pale-faced figure with bitumen° eyes Returns him such a god-forsaken stare As outcast Adam gave to Paradise. The man of snow is, nonetheless, content, Having no wish to go inside and die. Still, he is moved to see the youngster cry. Though frozen water is his element, He melts enough to drop from one soft eye A trickle of the purest rain, a tear For the child at the bright pane surrounded by Such warmth, such light, such love, and so much fear. |
Making Meanings
The Beautiful Changes
1. Is anything in the poem similar to your own experience? Can you make a connection between the poem and anything you noted in your
Quickwrite?
2. According to the poem’s speaker, in what way does Queen Anne’s lace change a meadow?
3. Who is “you”? In what way is the effect of “you” similar to the effect of Queen Anne’s lace?
4. The third stanza makes a strong statement. Paraphrase that statement and tell what you think the “second finding” might be.
5. In your own words, explain the ambiguity of the title. Does the poem as a whole support one meaning or the other, or both?
6. Is this a love poem? If so, who or what does the speaker love? Pick out the lines that support your answer.
Boy at the Window
1. What do you think the poem is suggesting about the boy and his fears? (How is the boy’s indoor “weather” like the outdoors?)
2. Explain the allusion at the end of the first stanza. Could it apply to both the snowman and the boy? Why or why not?
3. Why do you think the boy feels a connection with the snowman?
4. Why does the snowman feel sympathy for the boy?
5. Who is more comfortable in his situation—the boy or the snowman? Do you think this indicates something about the difference between the human world and the world of nature?