2

I collected this excerpt from a SAT preparation book. While I was reading this sentence, I was confused as to how to understand the bolded portion.

According to poet John Berryman, there were so many ways to ruin a poem that it was quite amazing good ones ever got written

Does it mean that there were so many ways to ruin a poem though it was beautifully written? Could anyone help me to understand the whole sentence clearly?

Improve this question
  • John Berryman was very amazed that good poems exist, because mistakes are easy to make while writing a poem; i.e., it is difficult to write poetry well. – John B Sep 23 '15 at 20:34
  • 1
    Just add (back) a 'that' after 'amazing' (the 'that' has been dropped) – Walter Sep 23 '15 at 22:11
6

According to poet John Berryman, ...
(= John Berryman said or wrote or mentioned that...)

... there were so many ways to ruin a poem
(= It was so easy to ruin a poem -- because there were so many ways to ruin it)

... that it was quite amazing good ones ever got written.
(= The fact that good ones (good poems) ever got written was quite amazing)

In other words, in his opinion, it's so easy to ruin a poem. As a result, we should have had much fewer good poems than we do have. The fact that we have some good poems is quite amazing.

Improve this answer

Your Answer

By clicking “Post Your Answer”, you agree to our terms of service, privacy policy and cookie policy

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.