Critical Analysis Of A Late Aubade By Richard Wilbur

The poem “A Late Aubade” written by Richard Wilbur is a seven stanza poem that was published in the year of 1968. In the beginning, Wilbur’s approach to this poem is the speaker daydreaming about what his lover could be doing at this moment, but the lover chooses not to. Like many of Wilbur’s works, his main goal is to produce a better feeling of the world if only in a small way and he does so in this poem. Wilbur demonstrates the life of a couple that is in love and spending the morning together where the speaker or the man doesn’t want his lover to leave. Wilbur is able to marvelously identify the theme of choice throughout this poem where the female or the speaker’s lover is constantly asked to decide on what she wants to do. In order to

An image that helps illustrate this is explained through the quotation, “You could be planting a raucous bed / Of saliva, in rubber gloves” (5-6). In this quotation, the reader can imagine a lady working in a harsh garden planting some type of mint. But, instead of the reader working in a garden, the reader thinks of the lady thinking about working in the garden, but who decides not to, so she can spend time with her lover. Another area imagery is present is when the male or the speaker is imagining the woman on a lunch date with one of her friends, while nodding in sympathy while she complains. But, again this is just another choice the female is able to decide on, but she doesn’t since she is with her male lover. Wilbur is able to use imagery to find the deeper meaning behind the choices the woman must decide on. By using this imagery, Wilbur hopes to tell the reader that since the male is imagining the female doing all these activities, he is also the one trying to persuade her to stay inside with him. The male is able to persuade her to stay inside with him that morning instead of doing normal female activities; Wilbur is illustrating here that when a female is in love, she is easily persuaded by her lover. Overall through the use of imagery, Wilbur is able to demonstrate the theme of choice and the much deeper meaning behind

Carpe diem is to use the urge of someone to make most of the present time and give little thought to the future. Carpe diem is a smaller theme in this poem and it is demonstrated near the end when the two lovers were about to part ways. It is best explained through the quotation, “Wait for a while, then slip downstairs / And bring us up some chilled white wine,” (25-26). This quotation explains the carpe diem in the poem because the male or the speaker in this poem is urging his lover to just go and grab snacks and come back to him. By doing this the male is more worried about spending time with his lover in this moment, he is not thinking much about what will happen in the future. Essentially, in “A Late Aubade” the characters are living in the moment, spreading their love to each other by spending it together without worrying about the future at all. This illustrates the theme of choice because the characters decide on the choice of carpe diem by worrying about what they are going to do with each other in this moment. They are going to eat snacks together, enjoy each others company, and lay in bed the rest of the day. By deciding on this choice to do all day, they do not think much about the future of what can happen; they rather just focus on each other in the present and live in the moment. Overall, the main theme of choice is illustrated