Carolina QuotesIt is better to have the child in the chimney corner moved by what happens in the poem, in spite of his ignorance of its real meaning, than to have the poem a puzzle to which that meaning is the only key. Still, complicated subjects make complicated poems, and some of the best poems can move only the best readers; this is one more question of curves of normal distribution. I have tried to make my poems plain, and most of them are plain enough; but I wish that they were more difficult because I had known more.
Randall Jarrell Carolinian
Source
"Answers to Questions," from Mid-Century American Poets, edited by John Ciardi, 1950, p. 170
- work
- Kipling, Auden & Co: Essays and Reviews 1935-1964 (1980)
- year
- 1935
- locator
- p. 170
Cite this record
“It is better to have the child in the chimney corner moved b…” Randall Jarrell. Carolina Quotes, record CQ-A6653D1670. https://carolinaquotes.com/quote/a6653d1670
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