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Article: The complete prose of Marianne Moore.
- Article from:
- The Nation
- Article date:
- November 1, 1986
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1986 The Nation Company L.P. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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THE COMPLETE PROSE OF MARIANNE MOORE.
Edited by Patricia C. Willis. Viking. 724 pp. $24.95.
It's hard enough to say what poetry is for. But what do we make of a poet's prose, especially the taxing syntax of Marianne Moore? Imagine 462 prose items packed into 692 pages, picture them dense with "independence of the subjunctive, and many another select defect' (the phrase is hers), then picture them denser still with her famously relentless quotations, and you will understand if I answer my question by quoting (the habit is catching) from one of her best-known poems: "it is a privilege to see so/much confusion.'
Except what looks like confusion ...