83. Poems… Marianne Moore
I just have Grace Schulman's big collection of 2003, "The Poems of Marianne Moore." I don't know what the collections were during her life, but 2 of my favorites, "Marriage" and "An Octopus," are from the early 20s, & so maybe in the same collection. That would be my nomination for her.
& this I think would be the most scandalous omission up to here for an Anglophone top 100 list. Moore survives to a too great degree in that clever line about imaginary gardens with real toads in them. And "I, too, dislike it" -- from the same poem -- admittedly, well aimed. After all, isn't poetry, from a certain point of view, detestable? Moore got that, which is a wonderful thing about her. Her poems are smart & difficult. You can't just read them, she forces you either to live with them or to leave them, to make that choice. I'm just an amateur, a novice, in her curious world, but have seen enough to be convinced of its value.
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