Poets to Know - Marianne Moore

Marrianne Moore is a hugely influential modernist poet and stone cold icon. She was born in Missouri, though she worked in New York for most of her life, and she never married, if you know what I mean. She's the most important modern poet you've never heard of - or at least I had never heard of her until I learned about him until my second or third class on modernism. We all know why - everyone, after all,  has at least heard of T. S. Elliot (we'll talk another time about my feelings on The Wasteland). And this despite the fact that Elliot was a fascist, if only casually. Ezra pound, another well known modernist, was so vehemently supportive of ​fascism and so antisemitic that he was actually arrested for treason. Not so, it goes almost without saying, for Moore. ​In the dichotomy of modernist poets, who split rather dramatically along the lines of the second world war, I'm comfortable saying she's safe to admire. She also worked for womens' suffrage. It's always interesting (and by that I mean stressful) learning about historical figures, but you're safe here. ​​
​Besides being an unproblematic fave,  Moore was an astounding poet. Consider her poem An Egyptian Pulled Glass Bottle in the Shape of a Fish. I selected this poem for its brevity. There's so much to say about Moore's style and technical faculty, and I didn't want to keep you here forever (maybe a little bit). First, it's of note that animals are a regular subject of Moore's work. She loved animals, and  they come into focus in much of her work on nature. One of my personal favorites, Peter, is about a hunting house cat. Here, we're given not a fish but the image of a fish. Also characteristic of Moore's work are quotes, which aren't on display here, but are relevant when reading Moore more generally. ​ ​
If you've studied Shakespeare in any detail, you'll be familiar with the concept of a metrical foot, and relieved to know Moore didn't use them. The balance of structure and rebellion is always a consideration when reading modernist poets, and Moore's relationship is interesting. This structure is fairly typical of Moore. She counts syllables in most of her poems, and frequently increases syllables per line in each stanza. There is a loose AABBCCDD rhyme scheme here, though it's applied fairly her mastery of form, her interweaving of nature and quotation and contrast. And then consider nothing. Examine the effects of her skill, but also take time to merely absorb them. 

Marianne Moore

An Egyptian Pulled Glass Bottle in the Shape of a Fish

Here we have thirst
and patience, from the first,
and art, as in a wave held up for us to see
in its essential perpendicularity;

not brittle but
intense—the spectrum, that
spectacular and nimble animal the fish,
Whose scales turn aside the sun's sword by their polish.

BY MARIANNE MOORE

Marianne Moore, and Friend

Where to start -

​Besides the above poems, the very professor who introduced me to Moore was adamant that Observations was the only collection worth anything.