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The usual bad poem in somebody’s Collected Works is a learned, mannered, valued habit, a habit a little more careful than, and little emptier than, brushing one’s teeth.

— Randall Jarrell Poetry and the Age (1953)

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More quotes by Randall Jarrell

One Whitman is miracle enough, and when he comes again it will be the end of the world.

Poetry and the Age (1953)

The people who live in a Golden Age usually go around complaining how yellow everything looks.

Kipling, Auden & Co: Essays and Reviews 1935-1964 (1980)

Human life without some form of poetry is not human life but animal existence.

Poetry and the Age (1953)

The real war poets are always war poets, peace or any time.

Kipling, Auden & Co: Essays and Reviews 1935-1964 (1980)

If we judge by wealth and power, our times are the best of times; if the times have made us willing to judge by wealth and power, they are the worst of times.

Kipling, Auden & Co: Essays and Reviews 1935-1964 (1980)

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Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Randall Jarrell (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.