A Graveyard

By Marianne Moore 1887–1972 Marianne Moore

Man, looking into the sea—

taking the view from those who have as much right to it as you have it to yourself—

it is human nature to stand in the middle of a thing

but you cannot stand in the middle of this:

the sea has nothing to give but a well excavated grave.

The firs stand in a procession—each with an emerald turkey-foot at the top—

reserved as their contours, saying nothing;

repression, however, is not the most obvious characteristic of the sea;

the sea is a collector, quick to return a rapacious look.

There are others besides you who have worn that look—

whose expression is no longer a protest; the fish no longer investigate them

for their bones have not lasted;

men lower nets, unconscious of the fact that they are desecrating a grave,

and row quickly away—the blades of the oars

moving together like the feet of water-spiders as if there were no such thing as death.

The wrinkles progress upon themselves in a phalanx—beautiful under networks of foam,

and fade breathlessly while the sea rustles in and out of the seaweed;

the birds swim through the air at top speed, emitting cat-calls as heretofore—

the tortoise-shell scourges about the feet of the cliffs, in motion beneath them

and the ocean, under the pulsation of light-houses and noise of bell-buoys,

advances as usual, looking as if it were not that ocean in which dropped things are bound to sink—

in which if they turn and twist, it is neither with volition nor consciousness.

Source: Becoming Marianne Moore: The Early Poems 1907-1924 (University of California Press, 2002)

Biography

Marianne Moore garnered significant critical acclaim and public recognition for her poetry during her six-decade career, including the rare triumph of winning poetry's "triple crown" of major awards—the National Book Award in 1952, the Pulitzer Prize in 1952, and the Bollingen Prize in 1953—for her 1951 work Collected Poems. Born in Kirkwood, Missouri outside of Saint Louis, Moore's family moved to Pennsylvania when she was 9. . . .

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