SOURCE: Hill, H. Russell. “Poetry and Experience.” English Journal 55, no. 2 (February 1966): 162-68.

In the following essay, Hill discusses Jarrell's war poem “A Front” using experiential input from several U.S. airmen.

In the introduction to The Face of a Nation,¹ John Hall Wheelock recalls one of Thomas Wolfe's remarks: “I'd rather be a poet than anyone else in the world. God, what I wouldn't give to be one!” Wheelock found it incredible that Wolfe should not consider himself a poet, and pointed to the selections from Wolfe's writings in The Face of a Nation as examples of what he considered the poetic genius of Wolfe. Wheelock's comments serve to point out that the term poet is not an easy one to categorize. Conversely, the student may find it hard to determine who the poet is, let alone distinguish which one of many masks a poet may have chosen...