SOURCE: Jarrell, Randall. “Levels and Opposites: Structure in Poetry.” Georgia Review 50, no. 4 (winter 1996): 697-713.
In the following excerpt, originally delivered as a lecture in 1942, Jarrell explains his aesthetics of poetic structure, emphasizing temporality, a struggle of opposites, and a dialectical tension of elements as the fundamental qualities of poetry.
This is a free excerpt of 52 words. There are 6,188 words (approx.
21 pages at 300 words per page) in the full critical essay.
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