Marianne Moore

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Standard Name: Moore, Marianne
Birth Name: Marianne Craig Moore
MM was a pivotal figure in US poetry of the twentieth century. A recent editor has written that no major poet is cherished more and known less from that period in America.
Moore, Marianne. “Introduction”. The Poems of Marianne Moore, edited by Grace Schulman, Faber, p. xix - xxx.
xix
As well as poetry, MM wrote translations, essays, criticism, and personal letters. She had an influential period as editor of the modernist journal the Dial. Her poems are characterised by precise, irregular, unrhymed verse forms and minutely detailed observation, often of semi-mythical animals used as ways of talking about the human condition. Always reluctant to let her work go out of her hands, and often self-deprecating about it, she published few books and let much of her poetry remain in periodicals.
Black and white photograph of Marianne Moore, standing against a bookshelf. Her grey hair is in a plait round her head; she wears a large dark jacket over a grey suit, collared shirt, and bow-tie.

Connections

Connections Author name Excerpt
Theme or Topic Treated in Text Fleur Adcock
Again her introduction is interesting and trenchant. She observes that the early twentieth century already feels remote. Her selection runs from Charlotte Mew (born in 1869) to a clutch of women a little over thirty:...
Theme or Topic Treated in Text W. H. Auden
It is no wonder than that Auden is an entertaining critic, with a penchant for the gnomic whether in titles (his essay on detective stories is called The Guilty Vicarage; his essay on Kafka
Intertextuality and Influence Patricia Beer
Her introduction gives a brief, humorous, yet enlightening account of her poetic career. She calls on poets to resist bullying by critics, and ends by quoting Marianne Moore 's famous remark about poetry as an...
Friends, Associates Elizabeth Bishop
In her junior year at college EB interviewed T. S. Eliot , who was in town to deliver the Norton Lectures. A year later she met Marianne Moore .
Marshall, Megan. Elizabeth Bishop. A Miracle for Breakfast. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.
34-6
Friends, Associates Elizabeth Bishop
Important among EB 's friendships were those with Marianne Moore (whom she met in March 1934 while she was still at college and learned a lot from in her early years in New York, but...
Textual Production Elizabeth Bishop
Her slim collection had been ten years in the making, and spanned the period before and after the second world war. She had worked hard at the last moment, spurred on by her editor and...
Literary responses Elizabeth Bishop
Early reviews of North & South were not enthusiastic, until the tide was turned following warm praise by Marianne Moore , Randall Jarrell , and then Robert Lowell ,
Astley, Neil. “Elizabeth Bishop: A Bibliography; Elizabeth Bishop: Chronology”. Elizabeth Bishop: Poet of the Periphery, edited by Linda Anderson and Jo Shapcott, Bloodaxe Books, pp. 175-00.
195-6
who was dismissive of some...
Theme or Topic Treated in Text Elizabeth Bishop
The Complete Poems contains some pieces uncollected at her death. The Collected Prose notably includes Efforts of Affection: A Memoir of Marianne Moore.
Literary responses Elizabeth Bishop
Sylvia Plath , who began with negative comments about EB , later developed admiration for her fine originality, always surprising, never rigid, flowing, juicier than Marianne Moore who is her godmother.
Rees-Jones, Deryn. “Writing ELIZABETH”. Elizabeth Bishop: Poet of the Periphery, edited by Linda Anderson and Jo Shapcott, Bloodaxe Books, pp. 42-62.
44
Fleur Adcock notes...
Cultural formation Bryher
From an early age, she fostered relationships with such innovative contemporaries as H. D. , Dorothy Richardson , Sylvia Beach , and Marianne Moore . In her life writings, Bryher places most importance on her...
Friends, Associates Bryher
Bryher read and was highly enthusiastic about Marianne Moore 's poetry, which H. D. had recommended to her. In 1921, following their meeting in the United States, Bryher arranged and paid for the publication...
Travel Bryher
In September 1920, Bryher's desire to meet American poets and see the liberating New World took her, H. D. , and H. D.'s daughter to the United States. Bryher met H. D.'s associate Marianne Moore
Literary responses Bryher
Unlike Development, which received much initial critical attention, Two Selves was reviewed in only one journal, the Manchester Guardian. Marianne Moore wrote privately to Bryher, telling her that she thought the novel a...
Textual Production Bryher
Desmond MacCarthy had launched Life and Letters in June 1928; it issued its last number this month, and Bryher's new publication first appeared in September. It merged it with the London Mercury after May 1939...
Literary responses Mary Butts
Although her work received mixed reviews, MB was generally recognized as an important if eccentric literary figure during her lifetime, and she was highly praised by other modernist writers, including Ezra Pound , Marianne Moore

Timeline

1920: Scofield Thayer began editing The Dial, a...

Writing climate item

1920

Scofield Thayer began editing The Dial, a monthly magazine published in New York.

Early 1936: The Faber Book of Modern Verse, edited by...

Writing climate item

Early 1936

The Faber Book of Modern Verse, edited by Michael Roberts (who was put forward for this task by T. S. Eliot ), set out to define the modern movement, not just chronologically but according...

Texts

Moore, Marianne. Collected Poems. Faber and Faber, 1951.
Moore, Marianne. “Introduction”. The Selected Letters of Marianne Moore, edited by Bonnie Costello et al., Knopf, 1997, p. ix - xv.
Moore, Marianne. “Introduction”. The Poems of Marianne Moore, edited by Grace Schulman, Faber, 2003, p. xix - xxx.
White, Heather Cass, and Marianne Moore. “Introduction”. New Collected Poems, Faber and Faber, 2017.
Moore, Marianne. New Collected Poems. Editor White, Heather Cass, Faber and Faber, 2017.
Moore, Marianne. Observations. The Dial, 1880-1929, 1924.
Moore, Marianne. Poems. Egoist, 1921.
Moore, Marianne. “Poetry”. Others, Vol.
5
, p. 5.
Moore, Marianne. Predilections. Viking, 1955.
Moore, Marianne, and T. S. Eliot. Selected Poems. Macmillan, 1935.
Moore, Marianne. Tell Me, Tell Me. Viking, 1966.
Moore, Marianne. The Complete Poems of Marianne Moore. Macmillan, 1967.
Moore, Marianne. The Pangolin and Other Verse. Brendin, 1936.
Moore, Marianne. The Poems of Marianne Moore. Editor Schulman, Grace, Faber, 2003.
Moore, Marianne. The Selected Letters of Marianne Moore. Editors Costello, Bonnie et al., Knopf, 1997.