924 unit 5: the harlem renaissance and modernism

PoetryMarianne Moore

I, too, dislike it: there are things that are important beyond all this fiddle. Reading it, however, with a perfect contempt for it, one discovers in it, after all, a place for the genuine. Hands that can grasp, eyes that can dilate,1 hair that can rise if it must, these things are important not because a

high-sounding interpretation can be put upon them but because they areuseful. When they become so derivative2 as to become unintelligible,

the same thing may be said for all of us, that we do not admire what we cannot understand: the bat d holding on upside down or in quest of something to

eat, elephants pushing, a wild horse taking a roll, a tireless wolf under a tree, the immovable critic twitching his skin like a horse that feels a flea,

the base - ball fan, the statistician— nor is it valid to discriminate against “business documents and

school-books”; all these phenomena are important. One must make a distinction

however: when dragged into prominence by half poets, the result is notpoetry, e

nor till the poets among us can be “literalists3 of the imagination”—above insolence and triviality and can present

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10

15

20

25

1. dilate (dF-lAtP): enlarge; open wide. 2. derivative: lacking originality. 3. literalists: people who interpret words in their usual or most basic sense.

d READING MODERN POETRYReread and paraphrase lines 1–11. What is important about “Hands that can grasp, eyes / that can dilate, hair that can rise”?

e FORM IN MODERN POETRYNote the extremely indented lines at lines 15, 20, and 22. What do these oddities of form contribute to the poem’s meaning? Explain.

ANALYZE VISUALSConsider what the speaker of this poem has to say about poetry. How do you think she might respond to this abstract painting?

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differentiated instruction

summaryIn this poem, the speaker begins by saying that she, too, dislikes poetry, calling it “all this fiddle.” Later, she gives reasons to like poetry for its genuineness, imaginativeness, and sense of reality.

d reading modern poetryPossible answer: Paraphrase: The speaker, like the reader, sometimes dislikes poetry but can also discover the genuine in poetry. Poetry can sometimes capture in an image something profoundly true and useful. Moore’s lines “Hands that can grasp, eyes / that can dilate,” and “hair that can rise” are important because they express the emotional impact of poetry. If students need help . . . Work with them to answer this question:• How does the speaker’s opinion of poetry

change from line 1 to lines 2–3?

R E A D I N G S K I L L

Lines 6–11discussion promptsUse these prompts to help students compre-hend Moore’s view of poetry:

Connect Which do you value more, complex ideas or useful advice? Explain. Students’ responses should present reasons for valuing or not valuing both options.Interpret What does Moore mean by “so derivative as to become unintelligible”? Possible answer: Moore means that ideas can be diluted down by endless interpreta-tion until they are meaningless. Evaluate Is Moore right that we do not admire what we cannot understand? Give examples pro and con. Accept thoughtful answers that include examples. for advanced learners/ap

Evaluate Form Explain that “Poetry” is written in syllabic verse. This form appears at first glance to be free verse, but in fact is not. To explore the form have students begin by counting the syllables in the first and last lines of each stanza. They will find 19 syllables in the first lines, counting line 20 as a continuation of line 19, and 13 syllables in the last lines. Moore plays with form by varying line lengths and syllable counts in

the remaining lines. Tell students that critical opinion on syllabic verse is divided and invite them to contribute to the debate by respond-ing to these questions: Is syllable count too arbitrary to hinge a poem upon? Can syllable count create rhythm—or does rhythm arise from other aspects of the poem? Invite stu-dents to explain the poem’s syllabic structure and their conclusions with the class.

e form in modern poetryPossible answer: The line breaks in lines 20 and 22 focus attention on the thematically important words distinction and poetry.

L I T E R A R Y A N A L Y S I S

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924 unit 5: the harlem renaissance and modernism

PoetryMarianne Moore

I, too, dislike it: there are things that are important beyond all this fiddle. Reading it, however, with a perfect contempt for it, one discovers in it, after all, a place for the genuine. Hands that can grasp, eyes that can dilate,1 hair that can rise if it must, these things are important not because a

high-sounding interpretation can be put upon them but because they areuseful. When they become so derivative2 as to become unintelligible,

the same thing may be said for all of us, that we do not admire what we cannot understand: the bat d holding on upside down or in quest of something to

eat, elephants pushing, a wild horse taking a roll, a tireless wolf under a tree, the immovable critic twitching his skin like a horse that feels a flea,

the base - ball fan, the statistician— nor is it valid to discriminate against “business documents and

school-books”; all these phenomena are important. One must make a distinction

however: when dragged into prominence by half poets, the result is notpoetry, e

nor till the poets among us can be “literalists3 of the imagination”—above insolence and triviality and can present

5

10

15

20

25

1. dilate (dF-lAtP): enlarge; open wide. 2. derivative: lacking originality. 3. literalists: people who interpret words in their usual or most basic sense.

d READING MODERN POETRYReread and paraphrase lines 1–11. What is important about “Hands that can grasp, eyes / that can dilate, hair that can rise”?

e FORM IN MODERN POETRYNote the extremely indented lines at lines 15, 20, and 22. What do these oddities of form contribute to the poem’s meaning? Explain.

ANALYZE VISUALSConsider what the speaker of this poem has to say about poetry. How do you think she might respond to this abstract painting?

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poetry 925

for inspection, “imaginary gardens with real toads in them,” shall we have it. In the meantime, if you demand on the one hand, the raw material of poetry in all its rawness and that which is on the other hand genuine, you are interested in poetry. f

30

f READING MODERN POETRYReread lines 28–32 aloud. How, if at all, does this change your sense of the line breaks?

Rising Moon (1965), Hans Hofmann. Private collection. © 2008 Estate of Hans Hofmann/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/Art Resource, New York.

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Lines 19–28reinforce key idea: rulesDiscuss How does Marianne Moore use rules to determine if text is poetry? Possible answer: Moore uses rules to identify poetry by determining if text is well written, if it uses lan-guage in understandable ways, if it rises above triviality, and if it addresses real objects in an imaginative way.

analyze visualsPossible answers: Since Moore wrote, “we / do not admire what we cannot understand,” she might not admire the painting. Since she saw artists as “literalists of the imagination,” she might see the painting as too abstract and not literal enough. On the other hand, she might respect Hofmann’s exploration of his medium and its limits.About the Art Abstract painter Hans Hofmann (1880–1966) produced a new kind of landscape in his paintings. These landscapes consisted of colors and planes instead of trees and landforms found in nature. Hofmann’s aim in painting was to create “pulsating, luminous, and open sur-faces that emanate a mystic light.” His compan-ions in adulthood included Picasso and Matisse, and Hofmann synthesized aspects of their style as well as those of other painters of 20th-cen-tury abstract works to create his own style.

f reading modern poetryPossible answers: The line breaks seem to disappear when the lines are read aloud. However, these breaks also make readers emphasize particular words or phrases.

R E A D I N G S T R A T E G Y

for less–proficient readersClarify Meaning Make sure that students understand Moore’s concluding statement about poetry. Help them retrace and restate the two elements she says reflect an interest in poetry:• the raw material of poetry (line 29), “ideas

and images that produce an emotional response”

• that which . . . genuine (lines 31–32), “ideas that are clearly stated and useful”

for advanced learners/apEvaluate Theme Moore makes a number of complex or even ambiguous statements about poetry. She says that poetry is “a place for the genuine” (line 3), but does not define genuine. She says that a physical and emotional re-sponse to poetry, as in “hair that can rise” (line 5) is “useful,” but does not say how. She prais-es real poets, or “literalists of the imagination” (lines 24–25), as opposed to the work of “half poets” who represent “insolence and triviality” (lines 21–26), but does not tell readers how to

distinguish between the two. Have students discuss the kind of poetry Moore would like, and why. Ask them to find examples of poems she would like or dislike, including poems in this book, and to share them with the class.

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