Carolina QuotesAll his tunk-a-tunks, his hoo-goo-boos — those mannered, manufactured, individual, uninteresting little sound-inventions — how typical they are of the lecture-style of the English philosopher, who makes grunts or odd noises, uses homely illustrations, and quotes day in and day out from Alice, in order to give what he says some appearance of that raw reality it so plainly and essentially lacks. These “tootings at the wedding of the soul” are fun for the tooter, but get as dreary for the reader as do all the foreign words — a few of these are brilliant, a few more pleasant, and the rest a disaster: “one cannot help deploring his too extensive acquaintance with the foreign languages”, as Henry James said, of Walt Whitman, to Edith Wharton.
Randall Jarrell Carolinian
Source
“Reflections on Wallace Stevens”, p. 129
- work
- Poetry and the Age (1953)
- year
- 1953
- locator
- p. 129
Cite this record
“All his tunk-a-tunks, his hoo-goo-boos — those mannered, man…” Randall Jarrell. Carolina Quotes, record CQ-7D5C9FAECB. https://carolinaquotes.com/quote/7d5c9faecb
More from Randall Jarrell
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