This complete collection of Moore's poetry, lovingly edited by the prizewinning poet Grace Schulman, for the first time contains all of Moore's poems, including 120 previously uncollected and unpublished ones. Organized chronologically to allow readers to follow Moore's development as a poet, the volume includes an introduction, all of Moore's original notes to the poems, along with Schulman's notes, attributions, and some variants. This long-needed volume will reveal to Moore's admirers the scope of her poetic voice and will introduce new generations of readers to her great achievement. The Poems of Marianne Moore is a must have both for Moore devotees and any reader seeking an introduction to the work of one of America's greatest poets.

Introduction xix

Prelude, December 25, 1895

Dear St. Nicklus; 3

Early Poems, 1907 &1913

Under a Patched Sail 7

To Come After a Sonnet 8

To My Cup-Bearer 9

The Sentimentalist 10

He Made This Screen 11

Ennui 12

A Red Flower 13

A Jelly-Fish 14

Progress 15

A Fish 16

My Lantern 17

Tunica Pallio Proprior 18

My Senses Do Not Deceive Me 19

Qui S'Excuse, S'Accuse 20

Elfride, Making Epigrams 21

A Talisman 22

Leaves of a Magazine 23

The Beast of Burden 24

Things Are What They Seem 25

This Is the Way Toads Talk: 26

To Pierrot Returning to His Orchid 27

To Pharaoh's Baker Plucking Up Courage to Ask the Interpretation of His Dream, When a Favorable Interpretation Had Been Accorded the Dream of Pharaoh's Butler 28

Piningly 29

Artificers and the Alchemist 31

To Youof the World, Not in the World: 32

Wisdom at Last 33

To a Stiff-winged Grasshopper 34

Emeralds 35

Sun, Moon, and Stars: 36

Polyphonic Craftsman, Coated Like a Zebra, Fleeing Like the Wild Ass, Mourning Like a Dove, 37

All of It, as Recorded 38

"Am I a Brother to Dragons and a Companion to Owls?" 39

"And Shall Life Pass an Old Maid By?" 40

The Assassins 41

Axiomatic 42

Reprobate Silver 43

The Candle-Stick Maker 44

"Coral-and-Brown" Admiring Herself in the Mirror 45

"Crepe Hanger?" He 46

To a Cantankerous Poet Ignoring His CompeersThomas Hardy, Bernard Shaw, Joseph Conrad, Henry James 47

The Fashion, Poor Lady, Behaving Like a Dungeon, Looking Like a Church 48

Flints, Not Flowers 49

The Grass That Perisheth 50

Guillemots 51

He Did Mend It. His Body Filled a Substantial Interstice 52

"I Like a Horse but I Have a Fellow Feeling for a Mule" 53

I Tell You No Lie 54

Ichabod 55

Inheritance 56

"It Makes No Difference to Balbus Whether He Drinks Wine or Water" 58

Kay Nielson in Cinderella 59

Kay Nielson's Little Green Patch in the Midst of the Forest 60

A Lady with Pearls, to a Blood Red Rook from Turkey, Who Has Depicted Her with Pathos in Surly Monotone 61

Light Through a Keyhole 62

Like Bertram Dobell, You Achieve Distinction by Disclaiming It 63

Majestic Haystack 64

Man's Feet Are a Sensational Device 65

Patriotic Sentiment and the Maker 66

As Has Been Said 67

Rencontre 68

Rodin's Penseur 69

Suaviter in Modo 70

To See It Is to Know That Mendelssohn Would Never Do: 71

To Worldly Wisemen Recommending the Town of Carnal Policy as a Substitute for the Celestial City 72

God Bless You, Sir 73

We All Know It 74

Why That Question: 75

You Are Very PensiveHammering Out in Darkness What Will Not Bear the Light of Day 76

Little Magazines, 1915 &1919

Ezra Pound: 79

To a Man Working His Way Through the Crowd 80

To Military Progress 81

Pouters and Fantails 82

That Harp You Play So Well 82

To an Intra-Mural Rat 83

Counseil to a Bachelor 83

Appellate Jurisdiction 84

The Wizard in Words 84

To William Butler Yeats on Tagore 85

The North Wind to a Dutiful Beast Midway Between the Dial and the Foot of a Garden Clock 86

Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel 87

To a Strategist 88

Injudicious Gardening 89

To a Prize Bird 90

Diligence Is to Magic as Progress Is to Flight 91

To a Steam Roller 92

To Statecraft Embalmed 93

To a Friend in the Making 94

Blake 95

George Moore 96

So far as the future is concerned, "Shall we not say, with the Russian philosopher, [How is one to know what one doesn't know?'" So far as the present is concerned, 97

Masks 98

Diogenes 99

Sun 100

"He Wrote the History Book" 101

To a Chameleon 102

Is Your Town Nineveh? 103

You Are Fire Eaters 104

Pedantic Literalist 105

Critics and Connoisseurs 106

In This Age of Hard Trying, Nonchalance Is Good and 108

To Be Liked by You Would Be a Calamity 109

Feed Me, Also, River God 110

Apropos of Mice 111

"She Trimmed the Candles Like One Who Loves the Beautiful" 112

In "Designing a Cloak to Cloak His Designs," You Wrested from Oblivion a Coat of Immortality for Your Own Use 113

Holes Bored in a Workbag by the Scissors 114

The Just Man and 115

Those Various Scalpels 116

Like a Bulrush 117

To the Peacock of France 118

Sojourn in the Whale 119

Roses Only 120

The Monkeys 121

Melanchthon 122

An Ardent Platonist 125

Reinforcements 126

The Fish 127

Callot-Drecol-Cheruit-Jenny-Doucet-Aviotte-Lady 129

You Say You Said 131

Old Tiger 132

Radical 134

Poetry 135

In the Days of Prismatic Color 136

Dock Rats 137

Picking and Choosing 138

The Dial Years, 1920 &1925

England 141

Lines on a Visit of Anne Carroll Moore to Hudson Park Branch 143

When I Buy Pictures 144

A Grave 145

New York 146

The Labors of Hercules 147

Snakes, Mongooses, Snake-Charmers, and the Like 148

People's Surroundings 149

Novices 152

Bowls 154

Marriage 155

Silence 163

Sea Unicorns and Land Unicorns 164

An Octopus 167

An Egyptian Pulled Glass Bottle in the Shape of a Fish 173

To a Snail 174

"The Bricks Are Fallen Down, We Will Build with Hewn Stones. The Sycamores Are Cut Down, We Will Change to Cedars" 175

"Nothing Will Cure the Sick Lion but to Eat an Ape" 176

Peter 177

The Monkey Puzzle 179

A Fool, a Foul Thing, a Distressful Lunatic 180

Lyrics and Sequences, 1926 &1940

The Steeple-Jack 183

The Student 185

The Hero 187

No Swan So Fine 189

The Jerboa 190

To Peace 195

The Plumet Basilisk 196

Camellia Sabina 201

The Frigate Pelican 204

The Buffalo 206

Nine Nectarines 208

Pigeons 210

Virginia Britannia 212

Bird-Witted 217

Half Deity 219

Smooth Gnarled Crape Myrtle 222

The Pangolin 224

Walking-Sticks and Paper-Weights and Water Marks 227

See in the Midst of Fair Leaves 231

World War II and After, 1940 &1956

Four Quartz Crystal Clocks 235

What Are Years 237

The Paper Nautilus 238

Rigorists 240

Light Is Speech 241

He "Digesteth Harde Yron" 243

Spenser's Ireland 245

The Wood-Weasel 247

Pale Morning Moon, Dark Blue Black Sea, 248

You, Your Horse 249

In Distrust of Merits 250

Nevertheless 253

Elephants 255

The Mind Is an Enchanting Thing 258

A Carriage from Sweden 260

"Keeping Their World Large" 262

His Shield 264

Propriety 265

Advent 267

A Face 268

Efforts of Affection 269

At Rest in the Blast 270

Like a Bulwark 271

Voracities and Verities Sometimes Are Interacting 272

By Disposition of Angels 273

Armor's Undermining Modesty 274

The Stuttering Quagmires Speak 276

The Icosasphere 277

Pretiolae 278

Quoting an Also Private Thought 279

We Call Them the Brave 280

Then the Ermine: 281

Apparition of Splendor 282

Tom Fool at Jamaica 283

The Web One Weaves of Italy 285

Rosemary 286

The Staff of Aesculapius 287

The Sycamore 288

The Magic Flute, 1956 &1965

Style291

Logic and "The Magic Flute" 293

Blessed Is the Man 294

Values in Use 295

Hometown Piece for Messrs. Alston and Reese 296

O to Be a Dragon 299

Enough: Jamestown, 1607 &1957 300

Melchior Vulpius 302

In the Public Garden 303

The Arctic Ox (or Goat) 305

Saint Nicholas, 308

For February 14th 310

No Better Than "a Withered Daffodil" 311

Combat Cultural 312

Leonardo da Vinci's 314

Saint Valentine, 316

Lines for Narrator 317

Tell Me, Tell Me 319

Carnegie Hall: Rescued 321

Rescue with Yul Brynner 323

To Victor Hugo of My Crow Pluto 325

Yvor Winters328

Baseball and Writing 329

Arthur Mitchell 332

Blue Bug 333

Charity Overcoming Envy 335

To a Giraffe 336

"Avec Ardeur" 337

W. S. Landor 340

The Master Tailor 341

An ExpedientLeonardo da Vinci'sand a Query 342

Old Amusement Park 344

Late Poems, 1965 &1972

Dream 347

In Lieu of the Lyre 348

The Mind, Intractable Thing 349

Granite and Steel 350

Love in America351

For Katharine Elizabeth McBride, President of Bryn Mawr College 352

Tippoo's Tiger 353

The Camperdown Elm 354

Assistance 355

Mercifully 356

"Reminiscent of a Wave at the Curl" 357

A Christmas Poem 358

Enough 359

The Magician's Retreat 360

Prevalent at One Time 361

Selections from The Fables of La Fontaine

The Fox and the Grapes 365

The Lion in Love 366

The Animals Sick of the Plague 368

The Bear and the Garden-Lover 370

The Mouse Metamorphosed into a Maid 372

Marianne Moore's Notes 375

Editor's Notes, with the Poetry's Attributions and Variants 399

Index of Titles and First Lines 441