Randall Jarrell
(1914–1965)

Randall Jarrell was a talented poet, literary critic, and teacher. Both writers and critics, including Robert Lowell, who called Jarrell "the most heartbreaking English poet of his day", praised his poetry. His literary essays, many of which appear in his book Poetry and the Age (1953), have been credited with altering the dominant critical trends and tastes of his time.

Jarrell was born and raised in New Orleans, Louisiana. After graduating from Vanderbilt University, he became a teacher, a profession to which he remained dedicated for the rest of his life. During World War II, he served in the United States Air Force. His war experiences provided him with the material for the poems in his book, Losses (1948). Many of his other poems, including those in The Seven League Crutches (1951), and The Lost World (1965), focus on childhood and the sense of innocence with which it is associated. In contrast, the poems in The Woman at the Washington Zoo (1960) reflect Jarrell's concern with aging and loneliness.

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