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Classic and Contemporary Poetry
THE HERO, by MARIANNE MOORE Poet Analysis Poet's Biography First Line: Where there is personal liking we go Subject(s): Heroism; Heroes; Heroines | |||
Where there is personal liking we go. weeds of beanstalk height, snakes' hypodermic teeth, or the wind brings the "scarebabe voice" from the neglected yew set with the semi-precious cat's eyes of the owl- awake, asleep, "raised ears extended to fine points," and so on-love won't grow. We do not like some things, and the hero doesn't; deviating head-stones and uncertainty; going where one does not wish to go; suffering and not saying so; standing and listening where something is hiding. The hero shrinks as what it is flies out on muffled wings, with twin yellow eyes-to and fro- with quavering water-whistle note, low, high, in basso-falsetto chirps until the skin creeps. Jacob when a-dying, asked Joseph: Who are these? and blessed both sons, the younger most, vexing Joseph. And Joseph was vexing to some. Cincinnatus was; Regulus; and some of our fellow men have been, although devout, like Pilgrim having to go slow to find his roll; tired but hopeful- hope not being hope until all ground for hope has vanished; and lenient, looking upon a fellow creature's error with the feelings of a mother-a woman or a cat. The decorous frock-coated Negro by the grotto answers the fearless sightseeing hobo who asks the man she's with, what's this, what's that, where's Martha buried, "Gen-ral Washington there; his lady, here"; speaking as if in a play-not seeing her; with a sense of human dignity and reverence for mystery, standing like the shadow of the willow. Moses would not be grandson to Pharaoh. It is not what I eat that is my natural meat, the hero says. He's not out seeing a sight but the rock crystal thing to see-the startling El Greco brimming with inner light-that Covets nothing that it has let go. This then you may know | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE CONFESSION OF ST. JIM-RALPH by DENIS JOHNSON NOTES FOR AN ELEGY by WILLIAM MEREDITH THE EROTICS OF HISTORY by EAVAN BOLAND A SONG FOR HEROES by EDWIN MARKHAM AFTER THE BROKEN ARM by RON PADGETT PRELUDE; FOR GEOFFREY GORER by EDITH SITWELL EXAMINATION OF THE HERO IN A TIME OF WAR by WALLACE STEVENS I MAY, I MIGHT, I MUST by MARIANNE MOORE |
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