Life & Wisdom Quote by Randall Jarrell

A single line, and Jarrell turns ordinary disappointment into existential farce. The metaphor is brutal because it’s so small: not war, not tragedy, not cosmic dread, just the petty humiliation of waiting somewhere too bright, too public, rehearsing charm for someone who never arrives. By calling life a blind date, Jarrell frames existence as an appointment we didn’t quite agree to, with minimal information and maximum stakes. “Blind” isn’t only about not knowing who you’re meeting; it’s about not knowing what any of this is for. The punchline lands on “stood you up,” that uniquely modern injury where nothing technically happens and yet you feel erased.

The subtext is Jarrell’s trademark suspicion of American optimism and self-improvement narratives. A blind date implies the possibility of connection, a story arc, at least a shared drink. Being stood up turns that promise into silence. Life, in this view, isn’t heroically tragic; it’s casually indifferent. The joke is that we keep dressing up anyway.

Context matters: Jarrell wrote under the long shadow of mid-century disillusionment. After World War II, the public language of purpose and progress was loud, while private life often felt emotionally evacuated. Jarrell, who could be both lyrical and lacerating, specializes in exposing that gap. The line’s intent isn’t to preach despair so much as to puncture sentimental mythmaking. It works because it makes the cosmic feel social, the metaphysical feel like a Tuesday night, and dread feel like checking the door again.