Classic and Contemporary Poetry
BOWLS, by MARIANNE MOORE Poet Analysis Poet's Biography First Line: On the green / with lignum vitae balls and ivory markers Last Line: In nothing so much as in a letter. Subject(s): Language; Words; Vocabulary | ||||||||
On the green with lignum vitae balls and ivory markers, the pins planted in wild duck formation, and quickly dispersed: by this survival of ancient punctilio in the manner of Chinese lacquer carving, layer after layer exposed by certainty of touch and unhurried incision so that only so much color shall be revealed as is necessary to the picture I learn that we are precisians not citizens of Pompeii arrested in action as a cross section of one's correspondence would seem to imply. Renouncing a policy of boorish indifference to everything that has been said since the days of Matilda, I shall purchase an Etymological Dictionary of Modern English that I may understand what is written and like the ant and the spider returning from time to time to headquarters, shall answer the question as to "why I like winter better than I like summer" and acknowledge that it does not make me sick to look modern playwrights and poets and novelists straight in the face that I feel just the same; and I shall write to the publisher of the magazine which will "appear the first day of the month and disappear before one has had time to buy it unless one takes proper precaution," and make an effort to please since he who gives quickly gives twice in nothing so much as in a letter. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...HOWYOUBEENS' by TERRANCE HAYES MY LIFE: REASON LOOKS FOR TWO, THEN ARRANGES IT FROM THERE by LYN HEJINIAN THE FATALIST: THE BEST WORDS by LYN HEJINIAN WRITING IS AN AID TO MEMORY: 17 by LYN HEJINIAN CANADA IN ENGLISH by JUAN FELIPE HERRERA THERE IS NO WORD by TONY HOAGLAND CONSIDERED SPEECH by JOHN HOLLANDER AND MOST OF ALL, I WANNA THANK ?Ǫ by JOHN HOLLANDER I MAY, I MIGHT, I MUST by MARIANNE MOORE |
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