Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, NEW YORK, by MARIANNE MOORE


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

NEW YORK, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: The savage's romance, / accreted where we need the space for commerce
Last Line: "it is the ""accessibility to experience."
Subject(s): New York State


the savage's romance,
accreted where we need the space for commerce—
the centre of the wholesale fur trade,
starred with tepees of ermine and peopled with foxes,
the long guard-hairs waving two inches beyond the body of the pelt;
the ground dotted with deer-skins—white with white spots
"as satin needlework in a single color may carry a varied pattern,"
and wilting eagles' down compacted by the wind;
and picardels of beaver skin; white ones alert with snow.
It is a far cry from the "queen full of jewels"
and the beau with the muff,
from the gilt coach shaped like a perfume bottle,
to the conjunction of the Monongahela and the Allegheny,
and the scholastic philosophy of the wilderness
to combat which one must stand outside and laugh
since to go in is to be lost.
It is not the dime-novel exterior,
Niagara Falls, the calico horses and the war canoe;
it is not that "if the fur is not finer than such as one sees
others wear,
one would rather be without it—"
that estimated in raw meat and berries, we could feed the universe;
it is not the atmosphere of ingenuity,
the otter, the beaver, the puma skins
without shooting-irons or dogs;
it is not the plunder,
it is the "accessibility to experience."





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