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MARIANNE MOORE AND THE VERSE ESSAY: STRUCTURAL PATTERNS IN THE EARLY POETRY OF MARIANNE MOORE
Abstract
When Marianne Moore began to publish poetry in 1915, it was immediately apparent that she was an original. Her unusual syllabic verse, the consequence of a variety of influences ranging from her firm Christian morality to her brief contact with Imagism, was designed to illustrate her observations on the nature of people and their world. To this end Moore employed in her poetry a structural pattern akin to that of the expository essay. An examination of her early poetry--that which appeared before the publication of Selected Poems in 1935--reveals this pattern and its evolution through three distinct stages. The earliest stage is that of the "epistolary/homiletic" poetry. These poems, usually brief, and often abrupt when critical, are mainly poems of praise or censure directed at an ambiguous "you." The majority of them were published between 1915 and 1917. Their titles, such as "To a Steam Roller," are in the form of an address, and they follow the structure of the traditional essay, with an introduction composed of a brief declamatory statement, a body which develops the main point, and an aphoristic final statement which forcefully concludes the poem. The reflective poems appeared primarily from 1918 through 1924. They often reflect upon or justify the persona's actions or opinions; hence "I" replaces the "you" so evident in the epistolary/homiletic poems. The titles of these poems, such as "Poetry," tend to announce their subject. They often open with a description, followed shortly by an embedded thesis, and end with a forceful conclusion. From 1926 until 1931 Moore served as editor of The Dial and published no poetry. When she did resume publishing, her poetry changed again in form and approach; it became a poetry of "descriptive statement." These poems are primarily extended descriptions which implicitly make Moore's point. The personal element of the epistolary/homiletic and the reflective poems disappears. But the elements of the three-part structure of the expository essay, while no longer so obvious, are still present. A study of Marianne Moore's method in her early poetry provides an approach to her work which illuminates not only her technique, but also her meaning.
Subject Area
American literature
Recommended Citation
KOELLING, ROBERT WILLIAM, "MARIANNE MOORE AND THE VERSE ESSAY: STRUCTURAL PATTERNS IN THE EARLY POETRY OF MARIANNE MOORE" (1982). ETD collection for University of Nebraska-Lincoln. AAI8227019.
https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/dissertations/AAI8227019