Comments on: Marianne Moore in the Village Voice

By: Joelle Biele

Joelle Biele — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 01:34:46 +0000

Thanks so much for for this! I LOVE that she wrote in–
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By: Terreson

Terreson — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 06:27:23 +0000

Well, I am not sure. I can’t help but suspect that Miss Moore probably disapproved of poetry’s most famous cat, that perfect slut and reincarnation of Cleopatra, Mehitabel. And in a way similar to how she felt the involuntary need to correct Elizabeth Bishop’s behavior. Toujours gai. Toujours gai.

Terreson
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By: Howard Partch

Howard Partch — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 00:00:09 +0000

I always loved Elizabeth Bishop’s “Invitation to Miss Marianne Moore.” What a great day a New York City can make!
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By: Abigail Deutsch

Abigail Deutsch — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 18:33:57 +0000

Wonderful–thanks, Tony!
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By: Jill

Jill — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 18:23:23 +0000

Will there every be another poet like Marianne Moore? Funny and serious and popular?
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By: Tony O

Tony O — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 18:05:52 +0000

Hey Abbie,

Here’s the letter. It’s dated July 24, 1957…

http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=TN4QAAAAIBAJ&sjid=EIwDAAAAIBAJ&pg=6406%2C5647428
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By: Don Share

Don Share — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 17:09:24 +0000

Further data. In 1936, Moore twice wrote to Elizabeth Bishop about a new kitten Bishop had, named “Minnow” (though Bishop regretted not naming it “Pterry”); each time Moore called the cat a “masterpiece.”

See also Moore’s poem, “Reminiscent of a Wave at the Curl,” an odd X-mas poem, which is about wars and cat-fights:

“cat-power matching momentum,
each kitten having capsized the other…”

It ends:

“‘Sir Francis Bacon defined it:
“Foreign war is like the heat of exercise;
civil war is like the heat of a fever.”‘

Not at all. The expert would say,
‘Rather hard on the fur.’”

Then there’s her version of a fable by Jean de La Fontaine, “The Cat and the Mouse.”

My own faves are the bird-scaring cat in “Bird-Witted” and the self-reliant one in her famous poem “Silence” (“‘Superior people never make long visits.’”).
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