Marianne Moore is a rare combination of 'poet's poet' and advice-giving moralist. Moore was always admired by a select group of modern poets, but she was often misunderstood and unintelligible to the average reader. Critics frequently believed that Moore's poetry dealt with inconsequential topics. However, as was often the situation, many critics did not understand her poetry either. There is much more philosophy in Moore's poetry than many of her critics ever imagined. In fact, it would be difficult to appreciate Moore's poetry without comprehending its philosophical depths and epistemological approaches.
Concerning Moore's prosody, her poetry is neither free verse nor accented rhythms. Her model is French. The words in Moore's poems are neither accented nor stressed, nor do they metrically rhyme. Instead, the pattern of syllables per line in each stanza is usually repeated in the next stanza. Consequently, the unaccented syllabication produces a conversational effect.
Ottone M. Riccio points out: "Syllabics is the technique used in early Hebrew poetry, in Oriental forms, in Welsh forms, and in some French poetry. Currently it enjoys the support of many poets writing in English. Marianne Moore was strongly identified with it" (94). Exactly how Moore uses syllabics will be seen in two of her poems: "The Student" and "To a Steam Roller."
This poem is about a student, who often seems to be untouched by the world, not because he is insensitive, but because he feels too strongly. For Moore, the deepest emotions are usually demonstrated in silence and restraint. As the poem concludes in lines 38-42: "He/'gives his opinion and then rests upon it';/he renders service when there is/no reward, and is too reclusive for some things to seem to touch/him; not because he has no feeling but because he has so much." Moore never keeps intelligence from being associated with emotion and sensitivity. The student's reclusiv...