Eastern Illinois University The Keep Masters Theses Student Theses & Publications 1992 Marianne Moore: Facets of the Crystal Mary Virginia Katzeff This research is a product of the graduate program in English at Eastern Illinois University. Find out more about the program. Recommended Citation Katzeff, Mary Virginia, "Marianne Moore: Facets of the Crystal" (1992). Masters Theses. 2105. https://thekeep.eiu.edu/theses/2105 This is brought to you for free and open access by the Student Theses & Publications at The Keep. It has been accepted for inclusion in Masters Theses by an authorized administrator of The Keep. For more information, please contact [email protected]. THESIS REPRODUCTION CERTIFICATE ·TO: Graduate Degree Candidates who have written formal theses. SUBJECT: Permission to J;'eproduce theses. The University Library is receiving a number of requests from other institutions asking permission to reproduce dissertations for inclusion in their library hold~gs. 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Date I respectfully request Booth Library of Eastern Illinois University not allow my thesis be reproduced because ~--------------------~--- Dat" Author m MARIANNE MOORE: FACETS OF THE CRYSTAL (TITLE) BY Mary Virginia Katzeff THESIS SUBMITIED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF Master of English IN THE GRADUATE SCHOOL, EASTERN ILLINOIS UNIVERSITY CHARLESTON, ILLINOIS 1992 YEAR I HEREBY RECOMMEND THIS THESIS BE ACCEPTED AS FULFILLING THIS PART OF THE GRADUATE DEGREE CITED ABOVE MARIANNE MOORE: FACETS OF THE CRYSTAL ABSTRACT Marianne Mooore's poetry embodies two different types of work. As well as the objective poetry that her contemporaries called modernist or Imagist (labels which she rejected), she also wrote quite personal, subjective poems. Two factors, theme and subject matter, unify her work and give evidence of her distinct poetic voice. The content and form of Moore's work developed from her personal life and interests. In her childhood, loss of a beloved grandfather and changes of household, as well as a lifelong attachment to her mother, affected the poet deeply, as evidenced by her consistent theme of protection. Exotic animals populate her poems, displaying their natural means of protection. Her early interest in painting also found a place in her poetry, as many objects of art became subjects for her pen. The objectivity and meticulous style found in her work both go back to her love of biology and scientific method which she acquired in her days as a student at Bryn Mawr. Marianne Moore's style endeared her to the avant garde poets of New York in the early decades of the 20th century. T.S. Eliot, William Carlos Williams, and others found her clinical objectivity ideal as they worked to develop poetry along similar lines. Moore retained her poetic abilities and popularity into her seventh decade, yet she did not even consider herself a ii poet, saying that her work could only be called poetry because it fit in no other category. We can rectify this seeming contradiction by realizing that, as she says in the final revision of "Poetry," (The Complete Poems of Marianne Moore. New York: Macmillan / Viking, 1981, 36) the reader can find in poetry "a place for the genuine. " For Marianne Moore, the "genuine" can be objective, the undisputable truth of science or subjective, the emotional honesty of art. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I wish to acknowledge the assistance in this endeavor of thesis director Dr. Bruce Guernsey and readers Dr. Carol Schmudde and Dr. David Radavich. I also want to thank my family for their patience, encouragement, and loving support. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT . ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS iv MARIANNE MOORE: FACETS OF THE CRYSTAL . 1 BIBLIOGRAPHY . • • • 3 7 v MARIANNE MOORE: FACETS OF THE CRYSTAL Marianne Moore wrote two very different kinds of poems. Most of the works upon which her reputation is based are photograph-like examinations of objects, often art pieces, and encyclopedic scrutinizations of unusual animals. These poems answer perfectly to T. S. Eliot's prescription for poetry without the presence of the poet's personality or feelings. But poems of this type constitute roughly one third of her Complete Poems. This final, although far from complete, compilation contains nearly twice as many poems which manifest something of the poet's subjective reactions to life and the world around her. Although the subject matter is consistent throughout her work, the poet's voice makes itself known in two different ways. In the process of discovering the facets of Moore's poetry, this paper will discuss the content and form of her work within the structure of her personal experiences and predilections. It will define the ways in which the reader can experience this poet's voice, something of her personal feeling that comes into the poem no matter how objective and distant she attempts to remain. Moore reveals her personal voice through theme, subject, and stylistic elements such as diction, syntax, meter, and imagery. She is also known through the literary influences she claims and from events in her life. 2 No poet can write without incorporating in the work something of self. Modernist poets and contemporary readers find that Moore's poems, at least the ones most anthologized, fulfill that goal of objectivity, yet her presence can be detected in many aspects of her craft and in a majority of her poems. As Paul Goodman explains in Speaking and Language: A Defence of Poetry, it is in the very nature of poetry to express the poet. A poem, though it may be written in a modern ''analytical" language, can be usefully regarded as speaking Jespersen's aboriginal language. The analogy is fairly exact. A poem is one inseparable irregular conglomeration, chanted. The word order is likely to be twisted. The names are particularistic and anomalous. New metaphors are invented. There is use of echoic meaning and expressive natural signs. There is strong use of tone and rhythmm sometimes even meter. The exposition of the sentence follows the speaker's exploration of the subject rather than a uniform rule. All of this is for the purpose of saying a feelingful concrete situation, rather than making discursive remarks about it. (149) If we hold a quartz crystal, an image of which Moore made use in a number of poems, in a shaft of sunlight and turn it one way, it will cast a bar of white light, plain, bright, and sharp. If we turn the crystal another way, it 3 will divide the sunlight into the brilliant colors of the rainbow. Likewise, Moore is able to focus her view of the world through herself-as-poet and create poetry, sometimes as clear and plain as a laboratory, sometimes alive and vibrant with feeling. To some degree, we can discern the poet's voice, however detached, from theme. Theme involves the choosing of one idea over another; thus, a poet's themes give evidence of her personal concerns. The theme of protection unifies the whole of Moore's work, even though most of her poetry deals with objects and animals rather than with people or feelings. Like "The Pangolin" or "The Plumet Basilisk" of her poems, she goes to great lengths to hide or disguise herself, yet something personal often peeks out at the reader. Related to protection, themes of security and danger also appear in Moore's work. Whether in poems that appear to be very objective, such as "The Plumet Basilisk" or "The Paper Nautilus," or more subjective, like "The Steeple Jack" or "Tell Me, Tell Me," she speaks of protection of one being by another as well as protection of self (or creature) by intrinsic qualities, such as camouflage, patience, and power. We can trace this preoccupation to childhood events. Born in Kirkwood, Missouri, on November 15, 1887, Marianne Moore experienced tragedy early in life. Her father, a failed inventor, suffered a nervous breakdown a few months 4 before her birth and vanished forever from his family's lives. When she was seven years old, Moore's beloved grandfather, a Presbyterian minister in whose home she had been living, died. Following his death, her mother moved with Marianne and her brother to Carlisle, Pennsylvania. Such loss and upheaval in early life obviously affected Moore deeply. The detachment and disaffection, the reticence and restraint that mark her poetry, as well as her theme of protection, probably result from to an insecurity and a fear of loss that go back to childhood. Moore's personal life was marked by familial devotion and attachment not inconsistent with her independent, even feminist ideas. Moore considered her mother her best friend and critic, depending on the older woman for reactions to her work constantly. When Marianne attended Bryn Mawr, the first year of separation from home and mother proved extremely difficult for the young student. She and her mother lived with her brother until he joined the Navy, and Marianne and her mother continued to live together until the latter's death when the poet was sixty years old. Three poems in particular exemplify Moore's concern with mother and family, our first protectors. "To a Steam Roller" illustrtates the ambiguous feelings that arise in families; the traditional motherly role is one quality of "The Hero"; "The Paper Nautilus" depicts the archetype of motherhood. The first two exhibit subjective emotion; the 5 third portrays the crustacean with reportorial objectivity.