Open Yale Courses

ENGL 310: Modern Poetry

Lecture 18 - Marianne Moore (cont.) << previous session | next session >>

Overview:

The previous lecture's examination of "The Octopus" is continued, focusing on Moore's innovative use of quotation. The poem "Silence" is read in connection with nineteenth-century poetry and the poet's personal reticence. Selections from Elizabeth Bishop's personal memoir of Moore are presented with special attention to Moore's relationships with other modernists and male poets in particular. The poem "To a Snail" is considered as a meditation on style and compression, and a reading of "The Paper Nautilus" rounds out a wider examination of the use and meaning of restraint in Moore's poetry.  

Reading assignment:

Marianne Moore: "The Steeple-Jack," "To a Snail," "Silence," "Poetry," "Critics and Connoisseurs," "What Are Years?" "When I Buy Pictures," "Picking and Choosing," "Marriage"; Norton: Humility, Concentration, and Gusto (pp. 994-99)

At the request of the Literary Estate of Marianne Moore, the poetry of Marianne Moore is not included in Open Yale Courses.

Class lecture: Some copyright-protected content has been excluded from this lecture.

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Handout 10: Marianne Moore [text]

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