In the spirit of the poem, I will keep this short. It's beautiful, it's simple, it's genius. I salute you, Richard Wilbur.
Wilbur made his name by translating our most beloved French satirists, Voltaire and Moliere. But poetry fell out of him wherever he went, including the battlefronts of World War II.
The best poetry manages to take the many contradictions and complications of the world and put it into order. This does it in spades.
"A Short History" by Richard Wilbur
"Corn planted us; tamed cattle made us tame."
"Thence hut and citadel and kingdom came."
