An Octopus (Masterplots II: Poetry, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: Marianne Moore
- First Published: 1924
- Type of Work: Meditation
- Genres: Poetry, Meditation
- Subjects: Perception, Traveling or travelers, Nature, Art or artists, 1920’s, Progress, Greek or Roman times, Ice, Learning or scholarship, Greece or Greek people, Mountains, Aesthetics
The Poem
“An Octopus” is a long, meditative, free-verse poem of 193 lines of varying length. Though meditative, it is not a reflective poem but one of active processes. Like many of Marianne Moore’s poems, the title runs immediately into the first line of the poem, thereby limiting any sense of positioning the poem or preparing the reader. The reader confronts a series of shifting possibilities as suggested by the first sentence: “An Octopus/ of ice.” This incomplete opening sentence establishes a metaphoric comparison that will be explored—but not fully or...
[The entire page is 1619 words long]
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