Poetry Challenge #322-Animal Within
If this image of our poet-of-the-week whirling down the street in a cape and tricorn hat calls to mind Yankee Doodle, and you’d be half right. Marianne Moore was no Yankee, but she did doodle.
Marianne Moore (Nov. 15, 1887-Feb. 5, 1972) was a “highly regarded as a poet during her lifetime and even became a minor celebrity, featured in magazines such as Life, the New York Times, and The New Yorker.”—poetryfoundation.com bio.
She was so highly regarded for her “modernist” way with words that Ford Motor Company asked her to come up with names for a new series of cars. Alas, they rejected her suggestions.
Moore “stands as the greatest American modernist – of those poets who remained in America,” ala poetry foundation. (Which prompts curious minds to wonder: Where did the other modernist poets go?) A question for another day. A timelier question for this prompt might be: What is modernist poetry?
Modernist Poetry “rose” from the ashes of “The Great War,” WW1. Poets reacting to the horrors of war wouldn’t put their pen to “romantic” topics favored by earlier poets—nature or love in tidily metered and rhyming stanzas—favored by earlier poets. Modernists wrote about real-world events such as war and death.
Moore was a Bryn Mawr gal, who studied history and biology—her interests that leaked into her poetry, hence the title and subject of her first published poem “A Jelly-Fish”:
“Despite lacking regular rhythm, or meter, it [Modernist Poetry] still reads like poetry because it has meaningful imagery, symbolism, and alliteration. Free verse allows poets to experiment with rhythm and sound in ways that traditional forms do not allow. By breaking the formal conventions of the past, authors could experiment with language and express themselves more freely.”
Moore’s Collected Poems (1951) won both the Pulitzer Prize in poetry and the National Book Award, and in 1953 she was awarded Yale’s Bollingen Prize.
Poetry Challenge #322
Animal Within
Channel Mariane Moore’s modernist leaning for today’s prompt, by casting off by going light on the rhyme and meter but heavier on the imagery, alliteration and other poetic devices. And because
“She [Marianne Moore] frequently used animals as a central image to emphasize themes of independence, honesty, and the integration of art and nature.”—Poetry Foundation
Give your poem an animal name title. ROAR!
Set Your Timer for 7 Minutes
Start Writing!
Don’t Think About it, Write It!
Want more Moore? Here’s a link to 10 of Marianne Moore’s Best Poems.
Cindy Faughnan and I began this 7-Minute Poetry Challenge 2700+ days ago. Now we take turns creating prompts to share with you. Our hope is that creatives—children & adults—will use our prompts as springboards to word play time. If you join us in the Challenge, let us know by posting the title, a note, or if you want, the whole poem in the comments.
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