Who is Randall Jarrell

Randall Jarrell jə-REL (May 6, 1914 – October 14, 1965) was an American poet, literary critic, children's author, essayist, and novelist. He was the 11th Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress—a position that now bears the title Poet Laureate of the United States.

Among other honors, Jarrell was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship for the years 1947–48; a grant from the National Institute of Arts and Letters, in 1951; and the National Book Award for Poetry, in 1961.

Biography

Youth and education

Jarrell was a native of Nashville, Tennessee. He attended Hume-Fogg High School where he "practiced tennis, starred in some school plays, and began his career as a critic with satirical essays in a school magazine." He received his B.A....
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Randall Jarrell Poems

  • Jerome
    Each day brings its toad, each night its dragon.
    Der heilige Hieronymus--his lion is at the zoo--
    Listens, listens. All the long, soft, summer day
    Dreams affright his couch, the deep boils like a pot. ...
  • The Player Piano
    I ate pancakes one night in a Pancake House
    Run by a lady my age. She was gay.
    When I told her that I came from Pasadena
    She laughed and said, "I lived in Pasadena ...
  • A Country Life
    A bird that I don't know,
    Hunched on his light-pole like a scarecrow,
    Looks sideways out into the wheat
    The wind waves under the waves of heat. ...
  • 90 North
    At home, in my flannel gown, like a bear to its floe,
    I clambered to bed; up the globe's impossible sides
    I sailed all night—till at last, with my black beard,
    My furs and my dogs, I stood at the northern pole. ...
  • Cinderella
    Her imaginary playmate was a grown-up
    In sea-coal satin. The flame-blue glances,
    The wings gauzy as the membrane that the ashes
    Draw over an old ember --as the mother ...
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Top 10 most used topics by Randall Jarrell

World 15 Life 11 Night 11 Child 10 Never 10 Good 9 Great 8 Black 8 Time 8 White 8


Randall Jarrell Quotes

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Comments about Randall Jarrell

Truequotation: it is the timber of poetry that wears most surely, and there is no timber that has not strong roots among the clay and worms. — randall jarrell
Dimasnu05987022: randall jarrell
Jamesan13514562: six miles from earth, loosed from its dream of life, i woke to black flak and the nightmare fighters. when i died they washed me out of the turret with a hose. randall jarrell
Jwilliamcupp: if we judge by wealth and power, our times are the best of times; if the times have made us willing to judge by wealth and power, they are the worst of times. -randall jarrell-
Robbyslaughter: one of the most obvious facts about grown-ups to a child is that they have forgotten what it is like to be a child. -randall jarrell
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Poem of the day

Edgar Albert Guest Poem
The Killing Place
 by Edgar Albert Guest

We're hiking along at a two-forty pace
We 're making life seem like a man-killing race,
With our nerves all on edge and our jaws firmly set
We go rushing along; with our brows lined with sweat
And our cheeks pale and drawn every minute we dash,
And the goal that we 're after is merely more cash.

We 're out for the money, the greenbacks and gold,
...

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