Randall Jarrell

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Randall Jarrell (born May 6, 1914 in Nashville , Tennessee , United States , † October 14, 1965 ) was an American poet , literary critic , children's book author , essayist and novelist . He was the eleventh Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry for the Library of Congress .

biography

Jarrell studied at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, where he made the acquaintance of poets from emigrant groups. He later moved to Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio . Here he wrote a paper on the poet Alfred Edward Housman , and met the poet Robert Lowell , with whom he had a lifelong friendship.

Jarrell earned his master’s degree in 1938 and then accepted a chair at the University of Texas at Austin, Texas . Here he met his first wife, Mackie Langham. From 1942 he did his military service in the United States Army Air Forces . At first he served as an aviator cadet, later as a navigator. His early work is shaped by his war experiences.

After his release, Jarrell worked for a year at Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville, NY , before moving to Woman's College of the University of North Carolina , where he taught English, modern poetry, and creative writing. Jarrell received numerous awards for his work, including the Guggenheim Fellowship in 1947-48, a grant from the National Institute of Arts and Letters , of which he was a member since 1960, in 1951, and the National Book Award in 1961. He was with the friend of the political philosopher Hannah Arendt .

During an evening walk on October 14, 1965, Jarrell was killed in a car accident. As he had recently received psychological treatment, it was rumored that he had committed suicide. A week after the accident, Robert Lowell wrote to Elizabeth Bishop , “There is a small possibility that Jarrell's death was an accident. I believe it was suicide and everyone who knew him does. ”His second wife, Mary, whom he married in 1952, believed it was an accident.

A memorial service was held at Yale University on February 28, 1966, attended by many of the country's most famous poets, including Robert Lowell, Richard Wilbur , John Berryman , Stanley Kunitz , and Robert Penn Warren . The New York Times called Jarrell "the heartbreaking poet of our time" who wrote "the best English language poetry about World War II."

plant

His first collection of poems Blood from a Stranger , which shows the influences of WH Audens , was published in 1942. It was followed by Little Friend, Little Friend 1945 and Losses 1948, in which he processed his experiences during military service. In these books, Jarrell freed himself from Aude's influence and developed his own style and poetic philosophy.

The best known of his publications of war poems is The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner . In this the individual soldier is portrayed as innocent and childlike; he is at the mercy of the state and only fulfills his duty. However, as Paul Gerhard Buchloh explains in his interpretation, the poem is not one-sidedly a war poem, but a general statement of existence that condemns the basis of the American state and the American self-image, the “ American Dream ”, as being laden with guilt. Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness are just dreams that don't come true. Life is extinguished, freedom does not exist, human happiness can no longer be pursued.

During this time he gained the reputation of an excellent critic, as a poet he was even less known. With the support of Edmund Wilson, Jarrell published numerous reviews in The Nex Republic . The recognition of Robert Lowell, Elizabeth Bishop and William Carlos Williams helped cement his reputation. In response to the 1951 book The Seven-League Crutches , Lowell described Jarrell as the most talented under 40-year-old poet who could combine pathos and beauty better than Pope or Matthew Arnold . Karl Shapiro compared Jarrell with the "great, modern Rainer Maria Rilke ."

Jarrell has written essays on Robert Frost , whose poetry had greatly influenced Jarrel's work, as well as on Walt Whitman , Marianne Moore , Wallace Stevens . These essays were summarized in the volume Poetry and the Age , published in 1953 . He is considered by many students to be the most astute poet of his generation, and in 1979 Peter urged Levi to turn their attention to Jarrell's criticisms.

In 1955 the novel Pictures from an Institution was published, which was nominated for the National Book Award in 1955 . It's about Jarrel's teaching experience at Sarah Lawrence College , which is named Benton College in the book. Jarrell also served as a poetry consultant for the Library of Congress from 1956 to 1958 . In the following years various children's stories appeared, including The Bat-Poet in 1964 and The Animal Family in 1965. As a poet, Jarrell earned his reputation by receiving the National Book Award in 1960 for The Woman at the Washington Zoo . His childhood- themed volume The Lost World , published in 1965 , was critically considered the best poetic work.

Jarrell has also translated works by Rainer Maria Rilke and other poets, a play by Anton Chekhov and some fairy tales by the Brothers Grimm .

literature

  • Paul Gerhard Buchloh : Randall Jarrell The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner. In: Klaus Lubbers (Ed.): The American Poetry - From Colonial Times to the Present . Bagel Verlag, Düsseldorf 1974, ISBN 3-513-02215-8 , pp. 338-352.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Paul Mariani: Lost Puritan: A Life of Robert Lowell . Norton, New York 1994, ISBN 0-393-03661-8 .
  2. ↑ Randall Jarrell, Poet, Killed By Car in Carolina. In: The New York Times. October 15, 1965.
  3. ↑ Members: Randall Jarrell. American Academy of Arts and Letters, accessed April 6, 2019 .
  4. ^ Robert Lowell: To Elizabeth Bishop. October 28, 1965. Letter 464 in The Letters of Robert Lowell. Ed. Saskia Hamilton. Farrar, Strauss, and Giroux, New York 2005, p. 465.
  5. ↑ Harry Gilroy: Poets Honor Memory of Jarrell at Yale. In: The New York Times. March 1, 1966.
  6. ^ Paul Gerhard Buchloh: Randall Jarrell · The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner. In: Klaus Lubbers (Ed.): The American Poetry - From Colonial Times to the Present . Bagel Verlag, Düsseldorf 1974, ISBN 3513-02215-8 , p. 348
  7. ^ Paul Gerhard Buchloh: Randall Jarrell · The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner. In: Klaus Lubbers (Ed.): The American Poetry - From Colonial Times to the Present . Bagel Verlag, Düsseldorf 1974, ISBN 3513-02215-8 , p. 343
  8. ^ Lowell, Robert. "With Wild Dogmatism." New York Times Book Review October 7, 1951, p. 7th
  9. ^ Karl Shapiro: In the Forest of the Little People. In: The New York Times Book Review. March 13, 1955.
  10. ^ The Paris Review , The Art of Poetry No. 24 , Peter Levi, Interviewed by Jannika Hurwitt. Issue 76, autumn 1979.
personal data
SURNAME Jarrell, Randall
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American poet, literary critic, children's author, essayist, and novelist
DATE OF BIRTH May 6, 1914
PLACE OF BIRTH Nashville , Tennessee, United States
DATE OF DEATH October 14, 1965