Society

Perspective: ‘Injudicious Gardening’ BY MARIANNE MOORE

If yellow betokens infidelity,
I am an infidel.
I could not bear a yellow rose ill will
Because books said that yellow boded ill,
White promised well;

However, your particular possession-
The sense of privacy
In what you did-deflects from your estate
Offending eyes, and will not tolerate
Effrontery.

By Marianne Moore (more…)

Perspective: ‘To A Prize Bird’ BY MARIANNE MOORE

You suit me well, for you can make me laugh,
nor are you blinded by the chaff
that every wind sends spinning from the rick.

You know to think, and what you think you speak
with much of Samson’s pride and bleak
finality, and none dare bid you stop.

Pride sits you well, so strut, colossal bird.
No barnyard makes you look absurd;
your brazen claws are staunch against defeat.

By Marianne Moore

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Perspective: ‘A Talisman’ BY MARIANNE MOORE

Under a splintered mast,
Torn from ship and cast
Near her hull,

A stumbling shepherd found
Embedded in the ground,
A seagull

Of lapis lazuli,
A scarab of the sea,
With wings spread—

Curling its coral feet,
Parting its beak to greet
Men long dead.

By Marianne Moore

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Perspective: ‘Reticence and Volubility’ BY MARIANNE MOORE

“When I am dead,”
The wizard said,
“I’ll look upon the narrow way
And this Dante,
And know that he was right
And he’ll delight
In my remorse,
Of course.”
“When I am dead,”
The student said,
“I shall have grown so tolerant,
I’ll find I can’t
Laugh at your sorry plight
Or take delight
In your chagrin,
Merlin.”

By Marianne Moore

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