Marianne Moore

I really liked the poems assigned for last Thursday’s class! A couple of them were familiar. Marianne Moore’s “Poetry” was one of the poems I remembered reading in another class. However, I was happy to be exposed to it again… I think it’s a great poem and reading it now with an understanding of what an ars poetica is made me appreciate and understand the poem a bit more.

One of the things I remember most about “Poetry” is its striking first phrase: “I, too, dislike it.” This statement seems ironic for a variety of reasons. Firstly, this poem is entitled “Poetry,” so you would think that the person writing it would like poetry. Secondly, if the writer does not like poetry, why is she interested in writing it? And thirdly, this statement seems to be refuted by the end of the poem as the writer describes what poetry is to her and the last phrase of the work is “you are interested in poetry.” However, I really like that the poet starts out her ars poetica with a strong statement that gets the reader thinking. It sets Moore’s poem apart from all other ars poeticas in a unique way.

The next thing I enjoy about Moore’s poem is the interesting line breaks. They seem to fall in kind of awkward places, but they really keep the poem interesting and make it more fun to read. I like how the lines kind of zig zag across the page as well. This is not a typical metered and rhymed, nicely lined up poem, which I really like. It kind of demonstrates itself the uniqueness that Moore is encouraging in poetry through her ars poetica.

Lastly, I want to comment on the images in the poem. I love how Moore uses animal images (a bat, an elephant, a wild horse, a flea, a wolf) to communicate her thoughts. It really paints a cool picture in my mind that I usually would not associate with the concept of how to write a good poem. She crams all of these animals into 5 short lines of the poem, but does so powerfully. Her later mention of “imaginary gardens with real toads in them” is cool too, and connects back to the other creatures mentioned earlier in the poem. What she is saying comes alive through the animal images she chooses to use.

Oh, and one more thing… I love how Moore compares poetry to other types of literature, like business documents and school books. She comments on how these forms of literature are important, but they are not really pieces of writing that anyone forms any type of emotional attachment with, as they would with poetry. As she had said earlier in the poem, “we/do not admire what/we cannot understand.” When I think about reading school books or business documents (things that I sometimes don’t understand and certainly don’t emotionally connect with), the value that poetry gains through its ability to be understood and related to by everyone who reads it becomes more obvious.

Overall, I thought Moore’s poem was great and of all the ars poeticas we have read throughout the semester, this is certainly one of my favorites! Maybe I can somehow employ some of the ideas presented by Moore in my own ars poetica… I guess we’ll see!

See you all in class!