Reviews

The Poems of Marianne Moore by Marianne Moore

emsemsems's review against another edition

4.0

Visible, invisible,
a fluctuating charm
an amber-tinctured amethyst
inhabits it, your arm
approaches and it opens
and it closes; you had meant
to catch it and it quivers;
you abandon your intent.
— ‘A Jelly-fish’

Have never properly read MM before (have only ever stumbled on and read her work in anthologies, never taken in so much of MM’s poems all at once), so I did it — and (allow the pretentious phrase) her poems really ‘spoke’ to me. I like her (work) — done. Decided. Maybe with another re-read/newer experience, I’ll round this off to a 5*? Quite likely, I should think. Particularly enjoyed the poems with ‘oceanic’/‘sea’ images/descriptions.

‘If you fear that you are
reading an advertisement,
you are. If we can’t be cordial
to these creatures’ fleece,
I think that we deserve to freeze.’
— from ‘The Arctic Fox (or Goat)’

emmishnation's review against another edition

makes moral args in her poems, cool takes on love and beauty as enduring, useful, strong, counterintuitive.