Marianne Moore Quotes

Marianne Craig Moore was an American modernist poet, critic, translator, and editor. Her poetry is noted for formal innovation, precise diction, irony, and wit.



Wikipedia  

✵ 15. November 1887 – 5. February 1972   •   Other names Marianne Craig Moore
Marianne Moore photo
Marianne Moore: 59   quotes 2   likes

Famous Marianne Moore Quotes

“Staff and effigy of the animal
which by shedding its skin
is a sign of renewal —
the symbol of medicine.”

"The Staff of Aesculapius"
The Poems of Marianne Moore (2003)

“Omissions are not accidents.”

The Complete Poems of Marianne Moore (1967), Author's note, p. vi

Marianne Moore Quotes about music

“Music should be directed by the ear, poetry by the imagination”

Review -Jean Gaingne -New & Selected Poems 1967
Prose

“I have been influenced by the Bible, Bach's music and contemporarily by Pound, Eliot, Stevens, Williams and Hopkins.”

Letter to Miss Gray in 1936 in response for a biographical sketch. Reproduced in Marianne Moore - A Literary Life by Charles Molesworth, Macmillan, New York 1990

“There is an inevitable connection between music and poetry.”

Quoted in Poetry Review 26 Sept 1935
Prose

Marianne Moore: Trending quotes

“… we
do not admire what
we cannot understand.”

Source: Complete Poems

“The deepest feeling always shows itself in silence;
not in silence, but restraint.”

"Silence"
The Poems of Marianne Moore (2003)

Marianne Moore Quotes

“The cure for loneliness is solitude.”

Source: Complete Prose of Marianne Moore

“I am hard to disgust, but a pretentious poet can do it”

Source: Complete Poems

“What I write could only be called poetry because there is no other category to put it.”

Interview with Donald Hall in November 1960, pub.'Paris Review' The Art of Poetry, no 26 (1961)

“Poetry is a magic of pauses … not a thing of tunes, but of heightened consciousness.”

Poetry and Criticism - American Peoples Encyclopedia , Groller , New York 1965

“We Call Them the Brave
who likely were reluctant to be brave.”

"We Call Them the Brave" (the title of this poem is also obviously meant to be read as its first line, though set apart)
The Poems of Marianne Moore (2003)

“Whatever it is.. poem.. play, story.. it must hold attention.”

Poetry as Expression - The Writer April 1962
Prose

“My father used to say "Superior people never make long visits."”

"Silence"
The Poems of Marianne Moore (2003)

“that which is impossible to force, it is impossible
to hinder.”

"Radical"
The Poems of Marianne Moore (2003)

“One may be pardoned, yes I know
one may, for love for love, undying (Ephesians 6:24)”

Voracities and Verities Sometimes are Interesting
Poetry

“Everything I have written is the result of reading or of interest in people.”

As quoted in Marianne Moore, Poet of Affection (1977) by Pamela White Hadas, p. 6

“Beauty is everlasting
and dust is for a time.”

"In Distrust of Merits" (1944)
The Poems of Marianne Moore (2003)

“I have learned more from Ezra Pound about writing than from anyone else.”

Review of Letters of Ezra Pound 1950
Prose

“What is our innocence,
what is our guilt? All are
naked, none is safe.”

"What Are Years?"
The Poems of Marianne Moore (2003)

“I look upon verse as an exercise in composition.”

Authors of 1951 Speaking for Themselves NY Herald Tribue 7 Oct 1951
Prose

“Some speak of things we know, as new;
And you, of things unknown as things forgot.”

"Quoting an Also Private Thought" (this poem is a very slight reworking of an earlier poem "As Has Been Said")
The Poems of Marianne Moore (2003)

“Love, ah Love, when your slipknot's drawn,
One can but say, "Farewell, good sense."”

"The Lion in Love"
The Poems of Marianne Moore (2003)

“A writer is unfair to himself when he is unable to be hard on himself.”

Interview in Writers at Work, Second Series, ed. George Plimpton (1963)

“You know I don't really understand much of my poetry myself. Of course, I was convinced I understood it when I wrote it!”

Quoted by Malvina Hoffman in her Memoir - Yesterday is Tomorrow 1961

“You are not male nor female, but a plan
deep-set within the heart of man.”

"Sun" from Tell Me, Tell Me (1966)
Poetry

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