Creativity in Marianne Moore’s Poetries: “Poetry”, “The Hero”, and “Marriage”

Abstract

The tradition in 20th century American poetry has its limits, where it has trouble breaking out of its own literary canon, of a male-centered modernism. In this set of circumstances, the female poet Marianne Moore revolted against the male-centered modernist tradition and strongly evoked an echo in American society. Moore transcended the modernist literary tradition, an age that dealt with difficult themes, and built up her own poetic world with various themes in “Poetry”, “The Hero”, and “Marriage”. While the prevalent modernist writers conveyed the authoritative and moral message in their works, Moore tried to make the meanings of objects, in her writings, more ambivalent with easy subject matters. In other words, she encourages the readers to find meaning in new ways through literary devices, making the meaning of her poems ambiguous and unsure. Especially, what Moore with a third identity, neither a woman nor a man, richly represented the fixed meaning of the subject matters can be considered as her own creative writing. Accordingly, her creative poetic world, which confidently escaped from the previous literary canon, can be significant in paving the way for new poetic ground.