Alex Dos Santos Ryan Fenton ENGL 1102 3/24/2014 The Complexity behind Love Literary Modernism can be argued as one of the most innovated movements in literature there has been so far. Beginning around early 1920’s, modernism of literature started as artists started to break down the traditional styles and become more creative and unrestricted with their works. One major change from this movement is how poetry became more intricate and open for different interpretations to the readers. One poet of this movement is Marianne Moore who wrote many of her popular pieces in this era. Many of her works included modernists’ techniques that became more common such as allusions and irony which aided in the complexity of her poems. Despite common interpretations, in Marianne Moore’s poem “Poetry”, Marianne uses the description of natural reactions and complex imagery to describe her input on love in that time instead of addressing what constructs poetry.
First of all, probably the most notable, is the complexity of Marianne’s imagery. In this poem, Marianne uses imagery of human reactions, unusual human and animal actions, and objects to convey her message. Such as in lines 6 and 7, “Hands that can grasp, eyes that can dilate, hair that can stand if it must.” Maureen claims that these lines create a fearful image that based upon an unlikely assumption that Marianne talks about the fear of bad poetry (Mills 1710). By using the more consistent viewpoint, love, Marianne uses these phrases to describe the common sensations of intimacy and how it is important because of the emotion and feelings behind it. Marianne’s complex imagery can also be seen at line 16, “the bat holding on upside down or in quest of something to eat.” Mary claims that Marianne believes that real objects are used in poetry to be understood and not interpreted in order to enjoy the poem (Stanley 25).