• Home
  • Poetry Prompts
  • The Writing Life
  • Daily Poem-Subscribe!
  • Teaching Tools
  • The Press
  • Just for Patrons

Poet Focus: Marianne Moore

By Glynn Young 4 Comments

I live in the oldest incorporated suburb of St. Louis, a town of 27, 540 called Kirkwood. It became a town in 1853, when a rail line was extended west. The project manager for the line was a surveying engineer from New York named James Pugh Kirkwood.

For the first 40 or 50 years of its life, Kirkwood was likely typical of towns in the 19th century Midwest — small town center serving both the rail line and the farms in the surrounding region. Merchants, clergymen, and others built homes near the town center, many of which survive today in good working order.

This was the town and culture where poet Marianne Moore was born in 1887. Her grandfather, the Rev. John Warner, had been a chaplain at the Battle of Gettysburg and was called to be pastor of the First Presbyterian Church of Kirkwood in 1867. Moore and her family lived with her grandparents until 1896, when Warner died and the family moved back to Pennsylvania. (The church still exists, although not the original church building.)

From Carlisle, Pennsylvania, it was Bryn Mawr College (Moore received a B.A. degree), a commercial school, and a teaching stint, until she and her mother moved to New York City in 1918. She worked at the New York Public Library and later served as acting editor of a literary magazine, The Dial. Moore lived in Brooklyn until her death in 1972. She won numerous recognitions for her poetry, including the 1952 Pulitzer Prize for her Collected Poems.

marianne-mooreMy edition of her Complete Poems is the paperback edition published by Penguin Books in 1994. The original version was published in 1967, and other editions have been subsequently published. Mine includes several poems previously unpublished, along with some of her prose as well; it contains the poems from all 11 of her published works, from 1921 to 1966. And yet the Complete Poems is still a relatively slender volume.

Through her work at The Dial, Moore got to know such poets as Wallace Stevens and William Carlos Williams, Ezra Pound, and “H.D., ” a.k.a Hilda Doolittle, poets who were part of the “Imagist” movement (H.D. published Moore’s first volume of poetry without Moore’s knowledge). From our vantage point, we would say she was squarely in the middle of the Modernist period in American literature.

And yet, for all of her modernist associations, Moore’s poetry didn’t exactly fit the category. There’s a richness, almost a lushness, in many of her poems that’s absent from the moderns. She ranged over history and literature — Rome and Greece, Britain and Ireland, and America — as well as music and the natural world. (I’ve read only one poem about weasels, and Marianne Moore wrote it.)

Moore wrote story poems, too, including one entitled “Marriage” that runs to nine pages. And a poem on baseball. Her poetic eye ranged over all of life, like this one, “No Swan So Fine”:

“No waters as still as the
dead fountains of Versailles.” No swan,
with swart blind look askance
and gondoliering legs, so fine
as the chintz china one with fawn-
brown eyes and toothed gold
collar on to show whose bird it was.

Lodged in the Louis Fifteenth
candelabrum-tree of cockscomb-
tinted buttons, dahlias,
sea-urchins, and everlastings,
it perches on the branching foam
of polished sculptured
flowers—at ease and tall. The king is dead.

Ezra Pound and Marianne Moore in the late 1960s.

Ezra Pound and Marianne Moore in the late 1960s.

Read that one aloud (the Poetry Foundation has a reading of the poem by Melissa Severin). Her poems are best read aloud, and slowly, to hear the music and interior sense of rhyme, order, and alliteration. She was a modernist who wasn’t a modernist.

While these qualities of her poetry likely come from the experiences of a lifetime, I like to think that those first years of her early life in Kirkwood were critical.

She wouldn’t recognize most of the town today. But a number of the homes, a few downtown buildings, even the 1893 train station (yes, we have a functioning Amtrak station) might be familiar. And she might still recognize the spirit of the place, for it has not changed that much in the 117 years since she left.

I can imagine a little girl, dressed in her 1890s dress and with ribbons in her hair, walking unpaved streets, past her grandfather’s church, stepping carefully around the ubiquitous horse droppings. She’s going to the general store across from the train station, the store with its farm implements and seed, dry goods and feed, and the occasional candies offering sweetness and excitement, making the walk worthwhile. And all of this would become stored for later use by her poetic eye.

Kirkwood’s streets are paved now, and the horse droppings and wagons long gone. But you can walk by the Fishback House (1867) and Mudd’s Grove (1859), and many others, and still hear the sounds of her poetry in the air, if you listen closely enough.

Photograph by Fortimbras. Sourced via Flickr. Post by Glynn Young, author of the novels Dancing Priest and the recently published A Light Shining.

________________

Buy a year of happy work mornings today, just $5.99. In June we’re exploring the theme Mirror, Mirror.

Every Day Poems Driftwood

You Might Also Like

  • National Poetry Month: Marianne MooreNational Poetry Month: Marianne Moore
  • Your Work Is Poetry: Poetry at Work Day 2018!Your Work Is Poetry: Poetry at Work Day 2018!
  • A Poem in Every Heart: I May, I Might, I MustA Poem in Every Heart: I May, I Might, I Must
  • “The Whole Harmonium: The Life of Wallace Stevens” by Paul Mariani“The Whole Harmonium: The Life of Wallace Stevens” by Paul Mariani
  • About
  • Latest Posts
Glynn Young
Follow Glynn

Glynn Young

Editor and Twitter-Party-Cool-Poem-Weaver at Tweetspeak Poetry
Glynn Young lives in St. Louis where he recently retired as the team leader for Online Strategy & Communications for a Fortune 500 company. Glynn writes poetry, short stories and fiction, and he loves to bike. He is the author of Poetry at Work and the Dancing Priest Series. Find Glynn at Faith, Fiction, Friends.
Glynn Young
Follow Glynn

Latest posts by Glynn Young (see all)

  • Listening to Poets in the Sounds of Silence - December 10, 2019
  • “Chaucer: A European Life” by Marion Turner - December 3, 2019
  • Poets and Poems: Edward Holmes and “Bravery & Brevity” - November 26, 2019

Filed Under: article, Bird Poems, Blog, Literary Tour, Poems, poetry, poetry teaching resources, Poets, Swans Swallows Phoenix

P.S., with love

We hope you found something inspiring here today.

Why not keep it going—for you, and the world?

Plus, you'll get access to our totally cool book clubs!

Comments

  1. Jerry says

    June 25, 2013 at 7:14 am

    Excellent review. I read it out loud before your suggestion. I read poetry out loud 90% of the time. Her poetry is rubbing off into yours Glynn. The Kirkwood muse is still hangin’ round.

    Reply
  2. Mary Sayler says

    June 25, 2013 at 8:05 am

    Interesting article about an interesting poet, Glynn! Thanks. Moore brought flair to her poems – and also to her discussions of her work. I especially like how her poems developed musicality when read aloud even though she often wrote syllabic verse. That awakened me to the fact that rhythmic poems don’t necessarily need iambic pentameter.

    Reply
  3. Maureen Doallas says

    June 25, 2013 at 10:36 am

    When I was in Philly last summer I stopped at the Rosenbach (a wonderful museum) and got to see some of the Moore collection there, as well as her (reconstructed) living room from her Greenwich Village apartment. Some fascinating stuff there.

    Reply
  4. L. L. Barkat says

    June 25, 2013 at 12:08 pm

    I am quite taken with the event of her poetry being published without her knowledge. How’d that go? Was she pleased? Displeased?

    Imagine someone loving your stuff that much to go and do that 🙂

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Take How to Read a Poem

Get the Introduction, the Billy Collins poem, and Chapter 1

Free with tweet

Many of Our Dedicated Readers Become Patrons—How About You?

Welcome all the patron-only goodness, when you become a part of a place that brings joy to your world.

Follow Tweetspeak Poetry

Welcome to Tweetspeak

New to Tweetspeak Poetry? Start here, in The Mischief Café. You're a regular? Check out our December Menu.

Recent Comments

  • Bethany on Adjustments Book Club: Homecomings
  • Will Willingham on Adjustments Book Club: Homecomings
  • Will Willingham on Adjustments Book Club: Homecomings
  • Richard Maxson on Adjustments Book Club: Homecomings

A Novel for Our Time

Thoughtful and hilarious, both.

A novel for our time.

If You Want to Partner With Us in a Simple Way

Featured In

We're happy to have been featured in...

The New York Observer

The Huffington Post

The Paris Review

Tumblr Book News

Categories

The Inaugural Poet Laura!

Poetry for Life? Here's our manifesto on the matter...

Poetry for Life: The 5 Vital Approaches

Help make it happen. Post The 5 Vital Approaches on your site!

Learn to Write Form Poems

Whether or not you end up enjoying the form poem, we've seen the value of building your skills through writing in form.

One reader who explored the villanelle was even featured in Every Day Poems!

How to Write an Acrostic

How to Write a Ballad

How to Write a Catalog Poem

How to Write a Ghazal

How to Write a Haiku

How to Write an Ode

How to Write a Pantoum

How to Write a Rondeau

How to Write a Sestina

How to Write a Sonnet

How to Write a Villanelle

Featured Literary Analysis

Poem Analysis: Anne Sexton's Her Kind

Poem Analysis: Adrienne Rich's Diving into the Wreck

Poem Analysis: Matthew Arnold's Dover Beach

Character Analysis: Romeo and Juliet

Order and Disorder in Macbeth

Tone in For Whom the Bell Tolls and Catch-22

Tragedy and Comedy: Why People Love Them

Was Hamlet Sane or Insane?

Shakespeare Resources

Poetry Classroom: Sonnet 18

Common Core Picture Poems: Sonnet 73

Sonnet 104 Annotated

Sonnet 116 Annotated

Character Analysis: Romeo and Juliet

Character Analysis: Was Hamlet Sane or Insane?

Why Does Hamlet Wait to Kill the King?

10 Fun Shakespeare Resources

About Shakespeare: Poet and Playwright

Top 10 Shakespeare Sonnets

Book Promotion, Platform, Publicity

Author Platform: Where to Start

Ten Surprising Secrets to Make Your Book Go Viral

How to Host a Successful Book Launch

Simple Tips on Finding and Working with a Book Publicist

How to Get Your Poems Published!

Pride and Prejudice Resources

5 Amusing Pride and Prejudice Quotes

Infographic: Simpleton's Guide to Pride and Prejudice

10 Great Pride and Prejudice Resources

Happy Birthday Mr. Darcy: A Pride and Prejudice Playlist

Featured Top 10 Poems

Top 10 Chicken Poems

Top 10 Chocolate Poems (Okay, Minus 3)

Top 10 Fairy Tale Poems

Top 10 Funny Poems

Top 10 Laundry Poems

10 of the Best Love Poems

Top 10 Poems with Make or Break Titles

Top 10 Mirror Poems

Top 10 Question Poems

Top 10 Red Poems

Top 10 Rose Poems

Top 10 Summer Poems

10 Great Poems About Work

Children’s Poems, Children’s Books

Llamas in Pajamas and Ten Great Children's Poetry Books

A Children's Poem on the Playground

Come Again: Teaching Poetry to Children

Poetry With Children: What's in Your Journal

Teaching Poetry to Children: There Are So Many Blues

Take Your Poet to Work Day: Poet Treasure Hunt in the Library (Callie's Story)

6 Benefits of Reading Aloud to Your Children

Top 10 Children's Books and YA Books

Little Red Riding Hood: Graphic Novel

14 Reasons Peter Rabbit Should Be Banned (Satire)

Featured Infographics

Infographic: How to Write an Acrostic Poem

Infographic: How to Write a Ballad

Infographic: How to Write an Epic Poem

Infographic: Ghazal for a Gazelle

Infographic: Boost Your Haiku High Q

Infographic: Pantoum of the Opera

Infographic: How to Write an Ode

Infographic: Poem a Day

Infographic: How to Write a Rondeau

Infographic: Simpleton's Guide to Pride and Prejudice

Sonnet Infographic: Quatrain Wreck

Featured Playlists

Playlist: Cat's Meow

Playlist: Doors and Passageways

Playlist: Fairy Tale and Fantasy

Playlist: Purple Rain and Indigo Blues

Playlist: Surrealism

Playlist: Best Tattoo Songs

Playlist: Trains and Tracks

All the Playlists

They Bring Poetry for Life

Meet our wonderful partners, who bring "poetry for life" to students, teachers, librarians, businesses, employees—to all sorts of people, across the world.

About Us

  • Our Story
  • Meet Our Team
  • Poetry for Life: The 5 Vital Approaches
  • Contact Us

Writing With Us

  • Poetry Prompts
  • Submissions
  • Writing Workshops

Reading With Us

  • Book Club
  • Dip Into Poetry
  • Every Day Poems
  • Literacy Extras
  • Moms on Poetry
  • Poets and Poems
  • Quote a Day
  • VerseWrights Journal

Public Days for Poetry

  • Poem on Your Pillow Day
  • Poetic Earth Month
  • Poet in a Cupcake Day
  • Poetry at Work Day
  • Random Acts of Poetry Day
  • Take Your Poet to School Week—National Poetry Month!
  • Take Your Poet to Work Day

Gift Ideas

  • Give the Gift of Every Day Poems
  • Our Shop
  • Everybody Loves a Book!

Connect

  • If You’d Like to Easily Partner With Us—Donate
  • Blog Buttons
  • Put a Poem in Your Heart, Or a Story in Your Soul
  • Shop for Tweetspeak Fun Stuff

Copyright © 2019 Tweetspeak Poetry · Site by The Willingham Enterprise · FAQ & Disclosure

We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you continue to use this site we will assume that you are happy with it.OkRead more