The Use of Animals in Marianne Moore's Poetry

Seminar paper from the year 2008 in the subject English - Literature, Works, grade: 2,0, RWTH Aachen University, language: English, abstract: 'Poetry has 'a place for the genuine,' and Moore's favoring of animals as poetic subjects is a tribute to their genuineness.' (Allen 1939, 112) In my term paper I want to deal with her special interest in animals. I want to find out why she uses animals in her poems and what function they fulfil. In order to do so, I will first have a look at her poems in general to discover what kind of animals she uses and with which frequency. I will also look at her life outside of the poet's world in order to understand where her influences came from. I will then pick out two of her animal poems to make a more specific analysis on them in order to see what the different functions of animals are and how they are presented. The first example will be Marianne Moore's poem To a giraffe which will then be compared to a second poem The arctic ox (or goat). In a next step I want to give an overview over the other functions of animals used in Marianne Moore's poetry. To understand the quantity and frequency of animal use in her works I will consider another by Marianne Moore which is called The Jerboa. Because of its length I will not analyze this poem in detail, but I will present the most important aspects in regard to the functions of animals given in this frequently cited and interpreted poem.

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