A Short Biography

Since doing research on Randall Jarrell’s Death of the Ball Turret Gunner, I have been able to take a glimpse into the poet’s life. He accomplished much before his death at the age of 51.

He was born on June 6, 1914, in Nashville, Tennessee but his family moved to the Long Beach/Hollywood area of California where his family and him lived until the age of 11 when his parents separated (“Jarrell, Randal" 222)

His mother wanted to move back to Nashville, but he chose to stay in California and lived with his grandparents (Mrs. Jarrell 284) eventually moving back to Nashville to live with his mother years later. He took courses on bookkeeping but hated the classes with such a passion so his uncle paid for him to attend college (Mrs. Jarrell 286). He went to Vanderbilt University where he graduated with two degrees and began teaching at Kenyon College in 1937 ("Jarrell, Randall" 222).

He did this for five years until he decided to join the Air Force in 1942 (Martz ix). Due to his age, he washed out as a combat pilot and became a celestial navigator (Lowell 107). He was most well known for his war poems, his most famous being “The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner”, published in 1945 ("Jarrell, Randall" 222).

After the war he was literary editor of The Nation and then moved from New York to Greensboro, North Carolina to teach as a professor of English at what was then known as the Women’s College of the University of North Carolina in 1947. He spent the next 18 years there until his death on October 14, 1965 ("Jarrell, Randall" 223).

From criticism to poetry to children’s books, Jarrell published many different works throughout his career. During his adult life, he had a reputation as a critic with “reviews that went beyond the limit” and were “unbelievably cruel” (Berryman 16) and much of his poetry was critically acclaimed. He met and married Mary von Schrader in 1952 and together they lived a full life. Unfortunately, he did suffer easily from bouts of depression. His wife suggested that Jarrell carried about with him throughout his life the burden of childhood insecurity both psychological and financial (Rosenthal 7).

It is said that his lonely childhood manifested and would be a commonality in his poetry along with birth, the State, war and dreams. About these subjects, Jarrell claimed “some of these I enjoy writing about, others I could not help writing about” (Jarrell 182).

This leads me to believe that these poems had to be written in an attempt to purge these feelings from himself. As well, his low self-esteem can be seen in how he describes his writing style, stating “I have tried to make my poems plain and most of them are plain enough; but I wish that they were more difficult because I had known more” (Jarrell 183).

In addition, he felt compelled to include prose sections with some of his poems so readers could understand. For instance,

I have read these poems many times to audiences of different sorts, and all the audiences liked listening to them better, and found them easier, if I said beforehand something about what a ball turret was, or a B-24, or Tatyana Larina – and said it in a “plain American that cats and dogs can read.” Not that my poems aren’t in plain American, but there it’s verse, not prose. Prose helps; it just helps be being prose. (Randall 3)

Randall Jarrell had a long and varied career as a poet, critic and teacher. Although his poetry seemed dark and moody, his friends portray him as such an easy going guy. As a teacher, it was said that every assignment that his students turned in was significant and that at home he had a child like quality that made him relatable to most. It is unfortunate that he passed away at such a young age because the poetry community lost a great talent.

Works Cited

Berryman, John. "On Poetry and the Age." Randall Jarrell 1914-1965. 'Ed'. Robert Lowell, Peter Taylor, & Robert Penn Warren. New York, NY: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1965. 10-13. Print.

Lowell, Robert. "Randall Jarrell." Randall Jarrell 1914-1965. 'Ed'. Robert Lowell, Peter Taylor, Robert Penn Warren. New York, NY: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1967. 101-112. Print.

Jarrell, Randall. "Answers To Questions." Mid-Century American Poets. 'Ed". John Ciardi. Boston, MA: Twayne Publishers, 1950. 182-184. Print.

Jarrell, Randall. "Biographical Note." Achievement of Randall Jarrell. 'Ed'. William J. Martz. Glenview, IL: Scott, Foresman and Company, 1970. ix. Print.

"Jarrell, Randall." Encyclopedia of World Biography. Second Edition. 8. Detroit, MI: Gale Research, 1998. 222-223. Print.

Jarrell, Randall. "Introduction." The Complete Poems. New York, NY: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1975. 3-11. Print.

Jarrell, Mrs. Randall. "The Group of Two." Randall Jarrell 1914-1965. 'Ed'. Robert Lowell, Peter Taylor, Robert Penn Warren. New York, NY: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1967. 274-298. Print.

Rosenthal, M. L. Randall Jerrell. 103. Minneapolis, MS: University of Minnesota Press, 1972. 5-46. Print.

Image Sources

"Randall Jarrell." PAL: Perspectives in American Literature - A Research and Reference Guide - An Ongoing Project. Web. 24 Apr 2011. .

Analysis of a Ball Turret Gunner

The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner by Randall Jarrell is a frightening poem about a soldier that dies in action during World War 2.  He is a gunner in the air force, positioned in a ball turret housed in the belly of a B-17. In the end, the gunner's corpse is removed and the turret cleaned with what seems like little regard for his death.

as you can see, it is a tight fit

Although it is only 5 lines long, it is intricate enough that it leads to many different theories and examinations.  Two critiques that I have come across by two different authors each have their own analysis about this poem which I found interesting.  

Patrick F. Bassett, a critic from the literary journal Explicator, feels the poem connects the imagery of sleep, animalism and human birth.  Bassett feels that the line, “…only a sleepy, fatigue-wearied turret gunner could battle enemy fighter planes and yet not awaken until hearing the ack ack sound of the anti-aircraft gun’s [black flack]” (Bassett 20) is used by Jarrell to convey sleep as a way to cope with war.  Since the gunner is not fully conscious, but is in a hazy reality, it is easier to contend with the oncoming fire from the fighter planes.  Bassett also goes onto claim Jarrell equates animals and men with the line “…wet fur froze.” (Bassett 20)  He theorizes that Jarrell wanted to inform his audience that since man does not have fur to keep him warm and only animals would ever suffer from cold temperatures to the point of freezing, that war makes animals out of men. (Bassett 20)  Bassett finally connects birth with this poem by pointing out that the soldier, having to fit in a ball turret, would almost have to contort into the fetal position.  He gives part of the line “And I hunched in its belly…” and reminds the reader that the soldier is “wet”.  (Bassett 21)  So with the imagery created, you could say that Jarrell is stating the soldier is birthed or miscarried out of the womb.  

Patrick J. Horner’s, another critic from Explicator has a critique with some similarities to Bassett’s in that he feels connections to birth (with the womb and idea of man as fetus are apparent in the poem) but he also feels that the State cared little for the narrator’s personal life and needed only a soldier to fight.  Horner states that during the time of birth to his death “the gunner exists simply as a part of the State’s [dream life]” (Horner 10) and that the little focus on the rest of his life makes his death “one more stage in the cycle of filling, emptying and refilling the turret.”  He also goes onto extract from Jarrell’s poem that the State simply used the gunner and then washed out his bloody corpse equating it to the abortion of an unwanted child.  “…the washing out of his remains by introducing a fluid under pressure clearly suggests one of the common procedures for ejecting a fetus after abortion” (Horner 10).  He also goes onto claim that the gunner “like an aborted fetus, was never allowed to achieve independent human life” since he is part of the State.  He is simply born, made into a soldier, put to fight and then died, to be replaced by another in a long, perpetual cycle.

          

Both Bassett and Horner give interesting analyses about this poem.  Both claim the poem states war is horrendous, and call to attention the imagery of birth.  However, Bassett lays more of the blame for lack on compassion at the end of the poem on man’s animalistic nature coming out during war, where Horner puts the blame on the State for its hypnotic effect it has on its soldiers.  These two complex analyses are two of many that have studied this poem and it is stunning that so much has been written about this poem in spite of it being only 5 lines long.  I think this is a testament to the talent of Randall Jarrell in that he can write a deep poem but not have it too lengthy or cryptic.

Works Cited

Bassett, Patrick F. "Jarrell's THE DEATH OF THE BALL TURRET GUNNER." Explicator 36.3 (1978): 20-21. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 14 Apr. 2011.

Horner, Patrick J. "Jarrell's THE DEATH OF THE BALL TURRET GUNNER." Explicator 36.4 (1978): 9-10. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 14 Apr. 2011.

Image Source

"Lower Ball Turret." One Story Of Many. Web. 15 April 2011. .

Just Imagine

     Imagine being perched in the belly of a plane, six miles from the earth in the most uncomfortable position and in the most confined area; suspended so high up, with only a few inches of glass acting as insulation that a sharp cold covers your entire body, creating a shiver that reverberates throughout and prohibiting you from making a steady shot from your rifle.  Imagine those same few inches of glass that are doing a lousy job insulating you from the cold are also the only thing keeping you from free falling to the ground.  This glass, if shattered by one of the thousands of bullets being fired at you by one of the many enemy planes whizzing by, could cause a six mile free fall to your death. 

     Randell Jarrell creates an atmosphere so terrifying; it leaves you in suspense and gives the illusion that nothing else could be more horrible until you get to the very end of his poem and experience humanity at its worst.  This blog hopes to examine Jarrell and his poem “The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner” by giving some history on ball turrets, some other works that involve them and some thoughts on the poem by myself and others.