Poetry: The Gold Standard of Revision

The poem “Poetry” by Marianne Moore is a great and fascinating poem for a number of reasons. 

Just generally this is an excellent poem in regard to the discord it opens up about poetry. She opens with, “I too, dislike it” making the argument that the reader, or even poets in general, don’t like writing poetry. She points out that there are more important things one could do with their lives than write poetry but then she counterbalances that with the power that comes from reading poetry. She at once laments and reveres what a poem is and what it can contain. It is almost at once a nonsensical rambling of things strung together and a winding illustration of precisely what poetry is. It is something both loved and hated. Something clear and unclear. Something done well and done poorly. 

Something to note, and love, about this poem is the context in which it exists. The first version of this poem was three pages long and sprawled in even more directions than the version I have linked to. Imagine, or look for yourself, what was cut down or trimmed, or reworked, or left out entirely. And now imagine this. There is another version of this poem from, I think, 1967 where Moore has reduced the poem to just three lines. This later iteration ends at, “a place for the genuine.” This is so awesome. It’s awesome because we have the context of these first two longer versions that are rambling and all over the place and sometimes seemingly unclear. Then, after decades of contemplation and gesticulation Moore reduces the poem to what she actually meant it to say. She didn’t need to write anything past those first three lines. Those first three lines were the poem this whole time and it took her that long to realize it. 

I think this example of revision is exactly what “Poetry” gets at. The writing is almost never a clear process and it can be unenjoyable but once you sit down and read a good poem your eyes open to what is so beautiful about this art form. Moore’s struggle with poetry and this poem exemplifies, exactly, the point I think she was trying to make and that is so beautiful. Not to mention she also wrote the liner notes for Muhammad Ali’s spoken word album I Am The Greatest. If that’s not cool, I don’t know what is.