Marianne Moore : the art of a modernist /

This group of essays serves as a stimulating companion to the recent full-length studies of Marianne Moore by Bonnie Costello (Marianne Moore: Imaginary Possessions, CH, Jan'82), Grace Schulman (Marianne Moore: The Poetry of Engagement, CH, May'87), and Taffy Martin (Marianne Moore: Subversive Modernist, CH, Oct'87). The editor, Joseph Parisi, has arranged the essays to represent seven points of view, plus a symposium by the seven contributors. There is some consensus, some contradiction, but the total allows us to see Moore as a complex, contradictory Modernist, employing the well-known techniques of precise imagistic detail, ellipsis, abrupt juxtaposition, but adding her own autocratic, sarcastic, moralistic attitudes, or, as Sandra Gilbert remarks, "a lady on the surface, subversive underneath." Richard Howard's "The Monkey Business of Modernism" is, as expected, witty, linguistically ornamental, but traditionally academic, as is John Hollander's "More Observations on Moore's Syllabic Schemes." Alicia Ostriker's "The Maternal Hero" and Sandra Gilbert's "Marianne Moore as Female Female Impersonator" both cast new light on Moore's achievement. Gilbert points out Moore's similarity to Edna Millay in using her feminity as an impersonation; Ostriker shows how Moore's female attitude is essentially anti-Modernist, celebrating "human nurture and human connection." Joseph Parisi's chronological essay on Moore's prose is a fine supplement to the recently published volume of Moore's complete prose by Patricia Willis. Highly recommended for academic and public libraries. -R. Whitman, Harvard University