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About this quote

What does it mean?
A good poem hides the effort it took to write it.
In plain terms
Great writing looks effortless even though it took hard work.
What can you take from it?
The goal of art is to make the struggle invisible.

Where it applies

  • reading poetry
  • writing practice
  • art criticism

Putting it to work

  • hide your work
  • polish drafts
  • value revision

Questions to consider

  • Do you value the struggle or the result?
  • Can art hide its work?

Another view

Sometimes seeing the effort can add to the appreciation of art.

More from Randall Jarrell

  1. If we judge by wealth and power, our times are the best of times; if the times have made us willing to judge by wealth and power, they are the worst of times.

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  2. You often feel about something in Shakespeare or Dostoevsky that nobody ever said such a thing, but it's just the sort of thing people would say if they could …

    Permalink to quote #52
  3. The people who live in a Golden Age usually go around complaining how yellow everything looks.

    Permalink to quote #49

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