Marianne Moore’s Poetry Flashcards
Key context on Marianne Moore
Marianne moore was form america and came form a deeply religious family + upbringing. Like her mother and her elder brother, Moore remained a devoted Presbyterian, strongly influenced by her grandfather, approaching her Christian faith as a lesson in strength vindicated through trials and temptations.
consequently her poems often deal with the themes of strength and adversity. She believed “it was not possible to live without religious faith” so + her poems often embody her virtues.
State Moores poems
- To a Snail
- What are Years
- The Mind is an Enchanting Thing
What is Moores To a snail centred around
The title does not outright emphasises any specific things which allows for ambiguity form the outset. The poem abstractly describes a snail and at the same time speaks about the “compression” of poetic works. I
in the first lines of ‘To a Snail,’ the speaker begins by loosely describing a snail, how it moves, and its ability to compress its own body.
Theres integration of art + nature and moore suggesting the snail as symbolic of the natural world is asrt which he makes apparent by the complexity of its shell, the way in which it can contain and curve the entirety of its body within it to protect itself “if compression si the first grace of style”
“In the absence of feet” there’s this “method of conclusions” and that “a knowledge of principles” is exhibited within “the curious phenomenon of its optical horn” eye-tips on the ends of tentacles are essential for the stylish element attributed to the snail, perhaps moores saying eveyhtings about perspective + thus we shouldn’t take the natural world nor the snail for granted because there’s such distinct beauty contained within them it hould be incomprehensible to loose such complex beauty.
Perhaps in discussing the complexity of the snail moores arguing that ultimately in comparison nothing matches natures complexity and power, even humanity, we can never truly rival it, we may destroy it but destroying ti will destroy ourselves whereas the complexity of the natural world means it can survive and even flourish without humanities presence, natures immortal and rejuvenating, we however are not.
Perhaps in order to understand the poem we have to be capable of both acknowledging and respecting the beauty of this phenomenon the snail and the natural world because the entire poems about our perspective and what we deem to be worthy of being enamoured and respected, and if we share this perspective, like moore, that the natural world is this phenomena worthy of being enamoured then w can understand the poems complexity.
State the poetic devices Moore utilises in To a Snail
- Repetition
the use of speech marks and the reuse of the technique epistrophe. - Epistrophe
lines one and eight with the word “style” and lines two and three with “virtue”. - Apostrophe
This is an arrangement of words addressing someone/something who does not exist, or is not present, in the poem’s immediate setting. In this case, the snail is being addressed - Alliteration
in the fourth and fifth lines, “acquisition” and “able to adorn”. - Enjambment.
What is Moores ‘What are Years’ centred around?
The recognition of one’s own reality. Moore’s speaker, who is likely the poet herself, is seeking through her various questions, the true nature of one’s “soul.”
She is a firm believer in the power that freed emotion can have. She is seeking to liberate herself, as well as any who read the text. The speaker talks through the ways that expressing oneself to the fullest extent can make one “grow taller,” just like a singing bird.
The speaker refers to mortality as a prison. Humanity is stuck within its fragile form while trying to overcome obstacles which often prove to be insurmountable. The constant pull within the body must be accepted and ascended.
State the key poetic Devices Moore utilises in ‘What are Years?
- Use of philosophical questions
- Allusion to religious connotations (unanswered Q)
What is Moores ‘The Mind is an Enchanting Thing’ centred around?
Moore tapes into themes of human existence, reality, memory, and experience. These universal themes are applicable to all readers from a variety of backgrounds. But, the content is obscured due to Moore’s heavy use of allusion.
Its a very complicated and image-rich poem that describes the nature of the human mind.
State the key poetic devices Moore utilises in ‘The Mind is an Enchanting Thing’
It’s a six stanza poem, each stanza of which is made up of six lines. These lines follow a very specific rhyme scheme of ABACCD. Rather than use a metrical pattern to structure the lines, Moore chose to organise them by syllable number. This pattern, in addition to the consistent rhyme scheme, are a good balance to the strange images that make uptake the bulk of this poem.
- Imagery
- Alliteration
- Enjambment
- Simile.
- Metaphor
- Complex use of Personification
