Randall Jarrell

Randall Jarrell
I could see why in his biography the mention of the recurring theme of death is mentioned. It is so morbid to see that side of war. And when we think about our soldiers being over there, a lot of times we regret to think of the negative consequences that something like that will have on the soldiers and their state of mind.
My favorite poem that Jarrell wrote is the first one, “Losses”. There is one sentence that stuck with me throughout the poem. Towards the end of the poem the speaker says, “Till our lives wore out; our bodies lay among The people we had killed and never seen.” This sentence is very emotional for me. It brings the soldiers down to the level of all the people they were forced to kill. It says to me that whether we are a soldier, or a civilian, or a child, we are all the same and end up the same. It’s a very interesting poem. There are different ways that the soldiers are dying throughout the poem itself. They die at the end and burn the cities where they’ve been. It’s as if it’s just a conclusion to that chapter of the soldier’s life, rather then life itself.
I didn’t really understand the poem, “A Girl In A Library”. I had a hard time understanding what the point of the poem was. I couldn’t follow very well and I know I skipped over some words and parts of the entire passage. There is this girl he’s describing as if he’s staring at her across the way. Though he stares, he doesn’t really communicate with her. He keeps his distance to her and just admires from a far. It reminded me of a stalker, honestly.
All in all I was okay with Jarrell poetry. It didn’t really wow me, but it wasn’t horrible.