Quote

In a poem the excitement has to maintain itself. I am governed by the pull of the sentence as the pull of a fabric is governed by gravity.

Marianne Moore

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

Marianne Moore
Age: 84 †
Born: 1887
Born: November 15
Died: 1972
Died: February 5
Essayist
Poet
Translator
Writer
Kirkwood
Missouri
Marianne Moore
Marianne Craig Moore
Pull
Excitement
Sentences
Governed
Fabric
Gravity
Sentence
Maintain
Poem

More quotes by Marianne Moore

Image
As for butterflies, I can hardly conceive of one's attending upon you but to question the congruence of the complement is vain, if it exists.
Marianne Moore
Image
Men are monopolists of stars, garters, buttons and other shining baubles- unfit to be the guardians of another person's happiness.
Marianne Moore
Image
Honesty - however dangerous - should be as valuable as radium it seems to me.
Marianne Moore
Image
It is human nature to stand in the middle of a thing.
Marianne Moore
Image
The power of the visible is the invisible.
Marianne Moore
Image
Impatience is the mark of independence, not of bondage.
Marianne Moore
Image
They fought the enemy, we fight fat living and self-pity. Shine, o shine, unfalsifying sun, on this sick scene.
Marianne Moore
Image
I see no reason for calling my work poetry except that there is no other category in which to put it.
Marianne Moore
Image
[The] whirlwind fife-and-drum of the storm bends the salt marsh grass, disturbs stars in the sky and the star on the steeple it is a privilege to see so much confusion.
Marianne Moore
Image
Life is energy, and energy is creativity. And even when individuals pass on, the energy is retained in the work of art, locked in it and awaiting release if only someone will take the time and the care to unlock it.
Marianne Moore
Image
You are not male nor female, but a plan deep-set within the heart of man.
Marianne Moore
Image
Fanaticism? No. Writing is exciting and baseball is like writing. You can never tell with either how it will go.
Marianne Moore
Image
You're not free until you've been made captive by supreme belief.
Marianne Moore
Image
Your thorns are the best part of you.
Marianne Moore
Image
Maine should be pleased that its animal is not a waverer, and rather than fight, lets the primed quill fall. Shallow oppressor, intruder, insister, you have found a resister.
Marianne Moore
Image
Blessed the geniuses who know / that egomania is not a duty.
Marianne Moore
Image
Poetry is a peerless proficiency of the imagination.
Marianne Moore
Image
Poetry ... ... a place for the genuine, Hands that can grasp, eyes that can dilate, hair that can rise
Marianne Moore
Image
Which of us has not been stunned by the beauty of an animal's skin or its flexibility in motion?
Marianne Moore
Image
What I write could only be called poetry because there is no other category to put it.
Marianne Moore