Women’s Writing in the British Isles from the Beginnings to the Present
Marianne Moore
-
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, 2003, 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.
"Marianne Moore" Retrieved from https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/4f/Marianne_Moore_1948_hires.jpg/601px-Marianne_Moore_1948_hires.jpg.
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, 2002, pp. 175-00.
195-6
who was dismissive of some...
Literary responses
Gertrude Stein
GS
was disappointed at the small enthusiasm the book generated when it was published. Only Marianne Moore
reviewed it favourably. Katherine Anne Porter
despaired of its length and density, but argued that to shorten it...
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.
qtd. in
Rees-Jones, Deryn. “Writing ELIZABETH”. Elizabeth Bishop: Poet of the Periphery, edited by Linda Anderson and Jo Shapcott, Bloodaxe Books, 2002, pp. 42-62.
This brought her work to a large and enthusiastic audience. Sylvia Plath
wrote to SS
declaring herself a fan. Several poems were printed in US papers and periodicals to prepare for the American edition in...
Occupation
Harriet Shaw Weaver
The Egoist Press
went on to publish Dora Marsden's The Definition of the Godhead, Eliot
's The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock, Pound
's Dialogues of Fontenelle, Lewis
's Tarr,...
Author summary
Medbh McGuckian
MMG
, who lives in Northern Ireland, is well-regarded among contemporary poets writing in English. She began by writing a very private and reserved poetry. Using images from the home and from nature, she explored...
Publishing
H. D.
HD's work also featured in the pages of Margaret Anderson
's and Jane Heap
's The Little Review and in the Dial, whose editor, Marianne Moore
, gave specific attention to establishing her reputation...
Reception
H. D.
Before this book was published, Marianne Moore
expressed great eagerness to see it, and Bryher
's preface to it.
Marek, Jayne E. Women Editing Modernism: "Little" Magazines & Literary History. University Press of Kentucky, 1995.
ES
praises Marianne Moore
as one of the very few women who have written poetry of worth.
qtd. in
British Book News. British Council.
(1951): 446
(She also, however, accords H. D.
the highest praise.)
Textual Features
Edith Sitwell
The English edition appeared the following year. Her choice for inclusion is, as usual, idiosyncratic. She begins well before Chaucer
, with anonymous early religious poems in which may be heard, she writes, the creaking...
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...
Textual Production
Carol Rumens
Since this year, 2007, CR
has been picking a Poem of the Week for the Guardian newspaper, which prints the poem along with her commentary and analysis. Rumens like to pay attention to context and...
Textual Production
Dorothy Richardson
Having begun writing poetry in mid-1923, Richardson was initially reluctant to share her poems with even her intimates: for instance with Bryher, who was a close friend and sometimes a creative confidante to H. D.
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...
