MARIANNE MOORE AND REVISION by ELOISE ARNOLD WHISENHUNT A DISSERTATION Submitt

184 Pages·2009·0.68 MB·English

“IT IS A PRIVILEGE TO SEE SO MUCH CONFUSION”:
MARIANNE MOORE AND REVISION

by
ELOISE ARNOLD WHISENHUNT

A DISSERTATION

Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements
for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy
in the Department of English
in the Graduate School of
The University of Alabama

TUSCALOOSA, ALABAMA

2009
Copyright Eloise Arnold Whisenhunt 2009
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
ABSTRACT

Marianne Moore’s Complete Poems is not complete; it contains sixty-six poems, which is about
one-third of her published work. What has not been omitted has, in most cases, been revised.
Such acts of expurgation and modification have led some critics to argue that the older Moore
revised the works of her younger self. Others view Moore’s history of revision as a progression
leading to succinct and compact poems. The fundamental claim of this study is that Marianne
Moore’s revisions are not the acts of an idiosyncratic poet but are manifestations of her aesthetic.
In her early poetry, Moore uses revision to “make it new.” Revision allowed Moore to
reinvigorate her poems after they had been published and interpreted. More importantly, in
revising her poetry Moore kept her poetry genuine. “The genuine,” for Moore, was that which
was in a constant state of flux. Moore’s revisions, then, achieve “the genuine.” Moore’s practice
of extensive revision emphasizes the pursuit of latent meaning rather than the quick capture of
patent understanding. The poems and their variants, then, serve as a “right good salvo of barks”
so that Moore’s reader must continue the chase, which she deems more meaningful than the
arrival at understanding, and it also keeps the work genuine.
In Chapter One, I examine four of Moore’s early verse essays that educate her reader as
to her aesthetic. These poems emphasize Moore’s aesthetic of pursuit and how her revisions
defamiliarize the text so that the reader has to re-engage the poem and, likewise, his or her
imagination. The focus of Chapter Two is “the genuine,” which Moore defines in “In the Days
of Prismatic Color” and in “Poetry.” Her revisions of “Poetry” display “the genuine,” and much
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of the chapter is spent considering these revisions. Chapter Three discusses the shift that
occurred in Moore’s poetics between the 1936 The Pangolin and Other Verse and the 1941 What
Are Years. Moore’s revisions of “Virginia Britannia” and “Half Deity” demonstrate a change in
audience and a change in Moore’s aesthetic that leads to the simplification of what had been
complex.

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DEDICATION

“Dedications imply giving, and we do not care to make a gift of what is insufficient,”
wrote Marianne Moore and then proceeded to dedicate her 1934 Selected Poems to her mother.
It seems appropriate to follow in Moore’s footsteps and beg the insufficiency of this dedication
to express my feelings of gratitude and utter love for my family, whose enthusiasm and sacrifice
have allowed me to make this dedication to them.

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LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

CP Complete Poems
CprMM The Complete Prose of Marianne Moore, ed. Patricia Willis (New York:
Viking Penguin, 1986)
ColP Collected Poems
Crit The Criterion
Critical The Critical Response to Marianne Moore ed. Elizabeth Gregory
Di Dial
Ego The Egoist
Lan The Lantern
OB Observations
Oths Others: A Magazine of New Verse
Oth16 Others: An Anthology of the New Verse, ed. Alfred Kreymborg (New York:
Knopf, 1916)
Oth17 Others: An Anthology of the New Verse (1917), ed. Alfred Kreymborg
(New York: Knopf, 1917)
Oth19 Others for 1919: An Anthology of the New Verse, ed. Alfred Kreymborg
(New York: Nicholas L. Brown, 1920)

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POV The Pangolin and Other Verse
Po Poetry
SP Selected Poems

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I am grateful to many people who have given generously of their time and expertise. In
particular, I thank Heather White, my director, for shepherding this study and for teaching the
class in which I received the initial inspiration. I would also like to thank my committee
members, Philip Beidler, Maurizio Godoreci, James McNaughton, and Peter Streckfus for their
time, compelling questions, and comments. In particular, I am grateful for Philip Beidler’s
expertise and encouragement. I would be remiss if I did not thank Carol Appling for all of her
help, especially over the last four years.
To my parents and in-laws, I am thankful for all of your support, emotional and financial.
Your encouragement helped me make it through some long days. To Mama and Dale, thank you
for tuition, books, and so much more. To my husband, Ted, thank you for carrying the load and
taking such excellent care of me and our family. To Huck and Weez, who let me work when
they wanted me to play, thank you for allowing me to slay this dragon.
I am indebted to Judson College for its financial support. I would particularly like to
thank President David Potts. I will forever appreciate Dan Thornton and Winifred Cobbs who
believed in my abilities and who encouraged me to persist. To my Judson students, thank you
for understanding that all things are somehow related to Marianne Moore.

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CONTENTS

ABSTRACT …………….………………………..…………………………………………...…iii

DEDICATION …………………………………………………………………………………....v

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ...……………….………..………….……………………...…….vi

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS …………………………………………………………………..….viii

1. INTRODUCTION ……………………………………………………………...…………..…1

2. CHAPTER ONE ……………………………………………………………………….……14

3. CHAPTER TWO ……………………………………………………………………………64

4. CHAPTER THREE ………………………………………………………………………...118

REFRENCES …………………………………………………………………………………..164

APPENDIX …………………………………………………………………………………… 171

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INTRODUCTION

In “The Steeple-Jack,” Marianne Moore describes a little “seaport town” in which there is
much to see. The poem begins by showing how orderly this town is with its “eight stranded
whales,” “water etched / with waves as formal as the scales of a fish,” “twenty-five- / pound
lobster,” and “fishnets arranged.” The seemingly idyllic order is disrupted by a storm, which
marches in:
. . . The
whirlwind fife-and-drum of the storm bends the salt
marsh grass, disturbs stars in the sky and the
star on the steeple; it is a privilege to see so
much confusion. Disguised by what
might seem austerity, the se-
side flowers and

trees are favoured by the fog so that you have
the tropics at first hand: (SP 1-2)

The storm obscures the scene, but in doing so presents “the topics at first hand.” What has
seemed to be a disturbance, results in a refined view of the town, for the storm reveals the
unfamiliar and exotic. The poet is grateful: “it is a privilege to see so / much confusion.”
Observing this town after the storm is a bit like examining Moore’s revisions. What
seems like confusion or idiosyncrasy reveals a conscientious poet who uses revision to express
her aesthetic. Moore’s aesthetic, however, was not static. Before 1940, Moore’s revisions, I will
argue, seek to defamiliarize her poems as they are reproduced so that the audience has to
reconsider them. In other words, Moore used revision to “make it new,” in the modernist sense.
At this time, her core audience consisted of poet-critics and other literati who read the Dial, The
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