Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, AN ARDENT PLATONIST, by MARIANNE MOORE


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AN ARDENT PLATONIST, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: Prone to observe the self-evident fact: one cannot sweep the
Last Line: Longer privileged, to say what one thinks in order to be understood.


Prone to observe the self-evident fact: One cannot sweep the
Ocean dry, even when it comes against one's own door, but one can withdraw from

the occupancy
Of land which is not very high: a just observation. Regarding with

Curious relish that python of selfishness, personal
Will—too heavy for the tree on which it rests—he dwelt in his
hardness, on the theological
Aspect of his proximity to it and on the mysteries of the

Creature's subsistence. The emotional shorthand of the East,
The telegraphic code of the West, the harmless innuendoes of the monkey—as

of the beast
Higher up, which resembles it—are but the language of commerce; he was

Right about it. He used to sit at the window and smoke and
The mosquitoes would come in; he was absolutely fearless. Formidable? No; to
understand
One is not to find one formidable. A philosopher, he was but

An apple which has not begun to mellow; the ratio
Is there; to be philosophical is to be no longer mysterious; it is to be no
Longer privileged, to say what one thinks in order to be understood.





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