Blow Out Your Candles, No Darkness

Walter Osborne, "The Birthday Party"

Walter Osborne, “The Birthday Party”

I turn 62 today so I’m sharing this Richard Wilbur birthday poem dedicated to someone close to my age.

The K.R. in the poem is the poet and critic Kathleen Raine. Some of the images in the poem are explained by her Wikipedia entry: she was interested in various spiritual traditions, which explains the references to Blake, Plato, and “the still pool.” It’s as though Wilbur, a far less esoteric poet than Raine, is having fun with his friend here. He’s assuring her that if she turns from the light (blows out the candles) and focuses on “the grand tour which souls must take” (our earthly lives), she will not be left in what she perceives as darkness.

The “dusky arc” may be both our circling back to the universal soul from which we come and the circular birthday cake. Though Raine’s less transcendent friends, benighted as they are, may not appreciate the light as she does (note the gentle sarcasm here), the poet asks her to “detain your upward flying spark” and join them here below. Or, if she wants, she can be like Shelley’s skylark, whetting her wings on the darkness and pouring down her poetry for their enlightenment. Although she may leave her friends when the light of dawn breaks (her death), in the meantime, and for the purposes of this birthday party, he urges her to commune with her friends in the darkness.

I love the good-natured ribbing of the poem. It’s what friends do when they come together for a celebration.

It’s also a salutary reminder that we must live in and make the best of this world.

For K.R. on Her Sixtieth Birthday

By Richard Wilbur

Blow out the candles of your cake.

They will not leave you in the dark,

Who round with grace this dusky arc

Of the grand tour which souls must take.



You who have sounded William Blake,

And the still pool, to Plato’s mark,

Blow out the candles of your cake.

They will not leave you in the dark.



Yet, for your friends’ benighted sake,

Detain your upward-flying spark;

Get us that wish, though like the lark

You whet your wings till dawn shall break:

Blow out the candles of your cake. 

This entry was posted in Uncategorized and tagged , , , , . Bookmark the permalink. Both comments and trackbacks are currently closed.

2 Comments

  1. WordPress › Error

    There has been a critical error on this website.

    Learn more about troubleshooting WordPress.