Editing Randall Jarrell (section)

===Criticism===
From the start of his writing career, Jarrell earned a solid reputation as an influential poetry critic. Encouraged by [[Edmund Wilson]], who published Jarrell's criticism in ''[[The New Republic]]'', Jarrell developed his style of critique which was often witty and sometimes fiercely critical. However, as he got older, his criticism began to change, showing a more positive emphasis. His appreciations of [[Robert Lowell]], [[Elizabeth Bishop]], and [[William Carlos Williams]] helped to establish or resuscitate their reputations as significant American poets, and his poet friends often returned the favor, as when Lowell wrote a review of Jarrell's book of poems ''The Seven League Crutches'' in 1951. Lowell wrote that Jarrell was "the most talented poet under forty, and one whose wit, pathos, and grace remind us more of [[Alexander Pope|Pope]] or [[Matthew Arnold]] than of any of his contemporaries." In the same review, Lowell calls Jarrell's first book of poems, ''Blood for a Stranger'', "a tour-de-force in the manner of Auden."<ref>Lowell, Robert. "With Wild Dogmatism." ''New York Times Book Review'' 7 October 1951, p. 7.</ref> And in another book review for Jarrell's ''Selected Poems'', a few years later, fellow-poet [[Karl Shapiro]] compared Jarrell to "the great modern [[Rainer Maria Rilke]]" and stated that the book "should certainly influence our poetry for the better. It should become a point of reference, not only for younger poets, but for all readers of twentieth-century poetry."<ref>Shapiro, Karl. "In the Forest of the Little People." ''The New York Times Book Review'' 13 March 1955.</ref>

Jarrell is known for his essays on [[Robert Frost]]&nbsp;— whose poetry was a large influence on Jarrell's own&nbsp;— [[Walt Whitman]], [[Marianne Moore]], [[Wallace Stevens]], and others, which were mostly collected in ''Poetry and the Age'' (1953). Many scholars consider him the most astute poetry critic of his generation, and in 1979, the poet and scholar [[Peter Levi]] went so far as to advise younger writers, "Take more notice of Randall Jarrell than you do of any academic critic."<ref>The Paris Review, The Art of Poetry No. 14 Peter Levi, Interviewed by Jannika Hurwitt. Issue 76, Fall 1979.[http://www.theparisreview.org/interviews/3379/the-art-of-poetry-no-24-peter-levi]</ref>

In an introduction to a selection of Jarrell's essays, the poet [[Brad Leithauser]] wrote the following assessment of Jarrell as a critic:<blockquote>[Jarrell's] multiple and eclectic virtues&nbsp;—originality, erudition, wit, probity, and an irresistible passion&nbsp;—combined to make him the best American poet-critic since [[T.S. Eliot|Eliot]]. Or one could call him, after granting Eliot the English citizenship he so actively embraced, the best poet-critic we have ever had. Whichever side of the Atlantic one chooses to place Eliot, Jarrell was his superior in at least one significant respect. He captured a world that any contemporary poet will recognize as "the poetry scene"; his ''Poetry and the Age'' might even now be retitled ''Poetry and Our Age''.<ref>Leithauser, Brad. Introduction. No Other Book: Selected Essays. New York: HarperCollins, 1999.</ref></blockquote>