Poems and Essays Author:John Crowe Ransom "John Crowe Ransom has made his own selection for 'Poems and Essays' from among his published works. The terminal essay, 'The concrete universal: observations on the understanding of poetry', was written in 1955 especially for this book, and it might be called a distillation of the central interests and patterns of [his] work. Randall Jarrell .... more » . . said, 'Ransom is one of the best, most original, and most sympathetic poets alive . . . he has written poems that are perfectly realized and occasionally almost perfect.'"« less