The Modernity Of Marianne Moore’s Poetry

As a representative poet of the modernist movement, Marianne Moore has gained muchattention from scholars for her creation during the first half of the twentieth century. Living inthe heyday of the American poetry, Moore never stopped writing and her poetry has receivedall the prizes the American literature can offer including a Pulitzer Prize. Her works are filledwith distinct modernist features and Moore has long been accepted as the representative poetof American modernist lyrics.Critics around Moore’s work differ from feministic to comparative; domestic studies onMarianne Moore mainly focus on the Chinese aesthetics influences. Therefore there are plentyperspectives for further studies. There is no study which combines the poetic themes withMoore’s modernist techniques. This thesis concentrates on the study of the combination ofMoore’s representative themes and her use of modernist techniques. This thesis argues that thecombination of modernist techniques and traditional themes bring about multi-layer aestheticsof Moore’s modernist characteristics, which calls for a thorough appreciation from thereaders.This thesis consists of five chapters. Chapter one is the introduction of MarianneMoore’s life experience and her main works; the historical background of the modernistliterature, including its time and basic features especially the frequent writing techniques.Lastly the scholars from abroad and domestic have studied abundantly about Moore’s verses,which laid foundation for this thesis. Chapter two analyses Moore’s nature poems thatpresented by modernist techniques such as collage and juxtaposition. Moore applies modernvisual arts to deal with animal and plant images, which creates tension among the writer, thework and the readers. It also eschews the writer from the verses to form the fragmentedaesthetics. Moore forcefully expresses the modernist symptom of alienation. Chapter threeexplores Moore’s feminine theme. Through depicting images, Moore expresses her opinionson marriage as an independent new woman. Chapter four relates the religious theme withMoore’s colloquial language feature and analyses Moore’s belief in religion’s function of salvation for the modern society. Through the everyday language, Moore advocates theChristian virtue of fortitude and provides a serious insight of the modernist spiritual crisiswhich only the salvation from Christianity can provide a cure.As a conclusion, the final chapter points out that Moore stands out as a modernist poet,not only due to her experiments with techniques, but also due to the fact that she combines hermodern art with the subject matters. Moore’s poems represent the highest level of Americanmodern poetry.