To criticize Moore's diction in choosing a word like "fiddle" misunderstands her method.
You could almost say that every word in Marianne Moore's poems is in quotes.
Her vocabulary focuses on juxtaposing words highly charged with a diverse
range of dictions, tones, registers, social & technical provenances --
"fiddle", "high-sounding,", "phenomena," "literalists." These plural registers,
tones, provenances evoke specific, different social attitudes and values.
Juxtaposing a diverse range of these implied contexts and evaluations allows Moore to
interogate her subject from a variety of angles. She is not intent on
creating the illusion ("persona") of a coherent speaking voice that seems to emerge from a specific
social and historical situation. She is, truly, a Modernist. She works by collage, and usually circles
an unstated subject rather thay staying overtly on topic throughout as in
"Poetry."