Randall Jarrell

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

Read more about Randall Jarrell:  Life, Writing, Bibliography

Famous quotes by randall jarrell:

    bars of that strange speech
    In which each sound sets out to seek each other,
    Murders its own father, marries its own mother,
    And ends as one grand transcendental vowel.
    Randall Jarrell (1914–1965)

    The firelight of a long, blind, dreaming story
    Lingers upon your lips; and I have seen
    Firm, fixed forever in your closing eyes,
    The Corn King beckoning to his Spring Queen.
    Randall Jarrell (1914–1965)

    One year
    They sent a million here:
    Here men were drunk like water, burnt like wood.
    The fat of good
    And evil, the breast’s star of hope
    Were rendered into soap.
    Randall Jarrell (1914–1965)

    I wrung from the darkness—that the darkness flung me—
    Is worthless as ignorance: nothing comes from nothing,
    The darkness from the darkness. Pain comes from the darkness
    And we call it wisdom. It is pain.
    Randall Jarrell (1914–1965)

    Bunched upside down, they sleep in air.
    Their sharp ears, their sharp teeth, their quick sharp faces
    Are dull and slow and mild.
    All the bright day, as the mother sleeps,
    She folds her wings about her sleeping child.
    Randall Jarrell (1914–1965)