Nature is a source of inspiration for the poet, and nature is used for its imagery, for its symbolic meaning, and for its role as a powerful force in human life. Nature was elevated to a high position by the Romantic poets, but poets before that time used nature as well. Many poets show a particular affinity for nature, tending to delve into it as an example of fertility, a connection with the infinite, a symbol of human sexuality, and so on. Poets such as Elizabeth Bishop, Marianne Moore, and C.K. Williams show an affinity for nature and develop images of nature by means of a strong sense of poetic language. Each shows ways in which form mirrors content, reflecting in some fashion an organic sense of both nature and language, and each also shows a certain self-consciousness about being a poet and being linked to a poetic tradition.
Marianne Moore's poetry is seductive in the way she arranges the syllables of each word, shapes lines in unusual ways, separates some words from the flow in order to emphasize their importance, and generally takes a very personal and unique approach to her material. It is especially interesting to see how she uses capitalization--or the lack of it--as a device that creates a very different structure and a different sense of meaning.
Marianne Moore's metrical and linguistic complexity is evident in her poem "The Fish." The title of the poem bleeds directly into the first line to create an opening sentence: "The Fish/ wade/ through black fade." Moore often uses this technique to make the title part of the poem and to set it apart as a symbolic image of all that will follow. Similarly, the end of each stanza remains open, bleeding directly into the beginning of the next stanza. the entire poem is therefore interconnected, as if part of a larger unit. Critic Charles Molesworth identifies the poem as one of Moore's more complicated and says it shows a particular interest of hers: "Moore was...