My apologies for my late entry—I’ve been battling the electronic Cerberus log-in.

I wish to disagree. I think (now I’m dizzy with reviewing all the posts) that Moore is said to have begun the poem in an old-maidish tone. This is (sexual) typecasting. It is an elevated tone, yes, for an elevated subject that the ars poetica often evokes. Have a look at her competition, which certainly competes. (Hers was published in 1924, Stevens in 1922).

A High-Toned Old Christian Woman
by Wallace Stevens

Poetry is the supreme fiction, madame.
Take the moral law and make a nave of it
And from the nave build haunted heaven. Thus,
The conscience is converted into palms,
Like windy citherns hankering for hymns.
We agree in principle. That's clear. But take
Th opposing law and make a peristyle,
And from the peristyle project a masque
Beyond the planets. Thus, our bawdiness,
Unpurged by epitaph, indulged at last,
Is equally converted into palms,
Squiggling like saxophones. And palm for palm,
Madame, we are where we began. Allow,
Therefore, that in the planetary scene
Your disaffected flagellants, well-stuffed,
Smacking their muzzy bellies in parade,
Proud of such novelties of the sublime,
Such tink and tank and tunk-a-tunk-tunk,
May, merely may, madame, whip from themselves
A jovial hullabaloo among the spheres.
This will make widows wince. But fictive things
Wink as they will. Wink most when widows wince.

terese svoboda, well, your post may have been late, but it was worth the wait.

All week, some posters have wondered about the context of Moore's "Poetry." Your posting of Stevens' poem is, indeed, an intriguing and possible context. Certainly it would not be the first pair of poems in which one responds to the other.

Thanks.

Good post and a fine counter example from Stevens. I agree with you that Moore wasn't writing this in a prudish manner, but rather as someone who, harboring conflicting desires, love/date, with poetry writes as someone who enjoys the lively life of the mind, as frustrating as it can be at times. She, as with Stevens, seems to aspire to an existence that is more voluptuous, shapelier, and sensual than our less adjectivized sphere. These aren’t brittle intellectuals casting about in airless speculation; sensation, arousal, excitement are their goals.

Terese...

It does appear that Moore is ticked off at someone. She is definitely offering a reply, where she too, dislikes poetry. It looks like that someone might be a half-poet according to her reckoning and not really interested in poetry. But she is trapped once she takes up the gauntlet to respond to the notion. I do like the idea that something genuine must be decipherable in a poem even if that idea itself is disingenuous, as it is in this case. Puzzles need solutions no matter how elegant, so your connection to suggesting a someone Moore has in mind, or that she has any person in mind, allows her to state, ultimately, that one must put something up for inspection or shut up. Agree that poetry must be decipherable and borne out of a genuine desire, with genuine goals. Anyway, whatever her inspiration, it felt genuine.

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These aren’t brittle intellectuals casting about in airless speculation......

　

Hey I like this sentence. Can I have it?…………….lol

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Just don't denny see it.

I like this one better. sensation, arousal, excitement are their goals.

good thread, all.

m.