Elements of Literature Course 5

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, too, dislike it: there are things that are important beyond all this fiddle.°
Reading it, however, with a perfect contempt for it, one discovers in
it after all, a place for the genuine.
Hands that can grasp, eyes

that can dilate, hair that can rise
if it must, these things are important not because a
high-sounding interpretation can be put upon them but because they are
useful. When they become so derivative° as to become unintelligible,
the same thing may be said for all of us, that we

do not admire what
we cannot understand: the bat
holding on upside down or in quest of something to
eat, elephants pushing, a wild horse taking a roll, a tireless wolf under
a tree, the immovable critic twitching his skin like a horse that feels a flea, the base

ball fan, the statistician—
nor is it valid
to discriminate against “business documents and
school-books”; all these phenomena are important. One must make a distinction
however: when dragged into prominence by half poets, the result is not poetry,

nor till the poets among us can be
‘literalists of
the imagination’—above
insolence and triviality and can present
for inspection, “imaginary gardens with real toads in them,” shall we have

it. In the meantime, if you demand on the one hand,
the raw material of poetry in
all its rawness and
that which is on the other hand
genuine, then you are interested in poetry.

1. How do you feel about poetry? Do you agree with Moore about what “real” poetry is? Review the notes you made in your Quickwrite.
2. Whom do you think Moore is addressing in this poem?
3. What kind of poetry does Moore dislike?
4. What elements does Moore think useful poetry should contain?
5. Moore says “literalists of the imagination” are necessary for true poetry. What do you think she means? How is this idea related to those “imaginary gardens with real toads in them”?
6. Identify the end rhymes of the fourth and fifth lines of stanzas 1, 2, 4, and 5. Which are exact rhymes, and which are slant rhymes?
7. List five experiences from your life that Moore would consider the “raw material of poetry.”

In your own words, paraphrase Moore's criteria for good poetry as stated in her poem. Which of these criteria would you apply to your own interpretation of a poem? Which of the criteria would you change or expand?

In a brief essay, compare Marianne Moore's ideas about poetry with Archibald MacLeish's ideas in "Ars Poetica" (page 789) or with Wallace Stevens's in "Of Modern Poetry" (page 790). What does each poet require in a poem? What do their descriptions of poetry have in common? For another poem on poetry, try Dickinson's "Tell all the Truth..." on page 386.

Write a letter to Marianne Moore, describing your response to "Poetry." Cite specific passages from her poem.

The most famous line in this poem is the one that says poetry should show us "imaginary gardens with real toads in them." Write your own list of what poetry is. Start with the words "Poetry is."

Marianne Moore often used information that she took from science and nature publications. Look through nature magazines or journals, and find an article that includes illustrations of animals, insects, birds, or fish that interest you. Write a poem about your chosen subject. Incorporate questions from the article into your poem.

With a partner, take turns reading "Poetry" aloud. Pay attention to line and stanza breaks and to the alternation of long and short lines. Note also the punctuation: Where would you read quickly, and where would you slow down for emphasis?