i don’t think i’ve ever taught Marianne Moore well. I can’t seem to do it! She demands so much and the eyes glaze over….
i love her poems but i can’t convey it somehow. it feels private; her poems enjoin me to start a process i think i deeply prefer to undergo in silence and alone….. no other poet aside from Niedecker feels like this to me.
@GillyWhite8 I too find Moore difficult to teach. The students remain dutiful rather than enthusiastic. I don't have this problem with Niedecker. In an article in Wallace Stevens Journal I once suggested considering this the Angelina Weld Grimké Era. It might be refreshing?
@GillyWhite8 Agree it’s a huge challenge. Sometimes I have taught the two versions of “Poetry” in my intro to lit courses and had students discuss the changes she made. Pairs well with the epigraph to Complete Poems, “Omissions are not accidents.”
@GillyWhite8 think of her as a crow taking home bits of bright ribbon she found
@GillyWhite8 I'm so sorry you've had this experience because I love her poetry.