1950s POetry Criticsm

Question 1

What interaction did Randall Jarrell identify between poet and reader?
(The Obscurity of the Poet, 1953)

Answer 1

‘How poet and public stared at each other with righteous indignation, till the poet said, “Since you won’t read me, I’ll make sure you can’t” — is one of the most complicated and interesting of stories.’

Question 2

What does Delmore Schwartz (1951) suggest?

Answer 2

Language had ‘degraded’ - arguing that poets had to be aware of this shift in meaning and ‘exactness’, thus praising attentiton to colloquial speech and variety of ways language can be used