Values and the Poems of Marianne Moore

Abstract

poetry derives from both her own moral strength and her artistic mastery. Woven with rare skill amongst the exotic fauna and strange protagonists in the special reality of her poetry is a lifetime of cleareyed examination and affirmation of the eternal verities that are the strengths of any society. Although she considers in a forthright manner the conventional values of courage, fortitude, independence, duty against odds, futility of war, and sheer grit, she is, however, no tiresome moralist.