Piece Description

SEGMENT A: Richard Wilbur was the second person to be named U.S. Poet Laureate after the name changed in 1986. This 1990 interview by Robert Stewart was conducted on the front porch of Wilbur's home in Massachusetts. Just to show that the Poet Laureate doesn't always have to be serious, Wilbur reads some of his poems for children. SEGMENT B: Robert Hass, U.S. Poet Laureate from 1995-97, writes poems that meld the landscape of California with childhood memories and Native American stories. In this 1998 interview with poet Michelle Boisseau, Hass reads "Dragonflies Mating" from Sun Under Wood, which won the National Book Critics Circle Award in 1996. SEGMENT C: The youngest person to serve as U.S. Poet Laureate, Rita Dove was 41 when she accepted the position in 1993. In this segment from a 1993 interview with Rebekah Presson, Dove talks about her development as a writer and reads her famous poem "Parsley," about the plight of the Haitian people, along with several other poems. SEGMENT D: The oldest person to serve as U.S. Poet Laureate, Stanley Kunitz was 95 in 2000 when he was appointed to the position he held once before from 1974-75. An avid gardener, Kunitz continues to write and publish work into his second century. In this 1992 interview with Rebekah Presson, he talks about his long life and feeling a connection to the natural world.