Responses to American Poetry
The aim of this online space is to host the research work of university students or young scholars as this emerges from larger projects focusing on the American poetry scene. The objective of this initiative is to bring this kind of research activity to the attention of the general public in an attempt to further promote the exchange of ideas with regard to the process of reading, understanding and appreciating poetry writing.
Tatiani Rapatzikou
(Professor, School of English, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece; Advisor and initiative co-ordinator trapatz@enl.auth.gr)
Surviving the 1940s WWII Cruelties: Perseverance and Imagination in Marianne Moore’s Poems “The Mind Is an Enchanting Thing” and “Nevertheless”
Penned by Marianne Moore, the poems “The Mind Is an Enchanting Thing” and “Nevertheless,” both appearing in her poetry collection titled Nevertheless (1944), have been approached as odes to the human mind’s spellbinding intellectual capacities and unrelieved resilience that the individual holds on to at times of crisis. Moore’s poems were published during the Second World War, a period known for its major impact on the course of global history as well as for its atrocities and cruelties that transformed people's lives. Moore’s 1944 poems attempt to offer a glimpse of hope in this gloominess, with the poetess eulogizing the enthralling abilities of the human mind and the individual’s effort to persevere and blossom at periods of hardship. However, the ending of “The Mind Is an Enchanting Thing” invites the readers to contemplate on the frailty of the mind, which not only has an inclination to certain unwavering ideologies but also it can prevent society from prospering and advancing for the common good. The following analysis examines the similes and the plethora of images employed in the two poems illustrating the tremendous capacity of the mind to deal with diverse and ordinary things, to resist temptation as well as its inclination to be obsessed and enchanted by various ideas. Additionally, the two poems focus, by resorting to homely and unhomely images that trigger multiple nuances of meaning, on the invincible spirit of humans in their ability to persevere throughout centuries of hardships, due to their power of tenacity that helps them thrive, even at moments of danger and massive adversity.
American Modernism is considered to be a tumultuous period, where a wave of massive changes starts to emerge, impacting the socio-cultural and political reality of the time. According to Loeffelhoz, “The Great Depression was a worldwide phenomenon and fostered social unrest that led to the rise of fascist dictatorships in Europe… [leading] inexorably to World War II” (11). The sense of dissonance, discontinuity, and human decay prevailing in the urban industrial areas of the time highlight people’s efforts to hold on to their hopes for a bright future instead of letting themselves be entrirely devoured by the prevailing feeling of while experiencing the constant fear and impending annihilation due to the two World Wars. The American Modernist literature addressing the interwar period that traumatized people’s lives attempted to reform traditional ways of conceptualizing reality by moving beyond norms and ideologies, certain sets of rules, and the dominant craze of Victorian and Romantic poetry. The imagist Ezra Pound, throughout his poems, sheds light on the power of the image. Specifically, he says in his essay titled “From A Retrospect” that “[‘an’] image is that which presents an intellectual and emotional complex in an instant of time” (Pound 322), capturing the fragmented and multilayered reality of the absurd period, due to the world wars, during which he lived and practiced his art. The images utilized in poetry carry additional complex meanings that attribute “that sense of sudden liberation; that sense of freedom from time limits and space limits: that sense of sudden growth, which we experience in the presence of the greatest works of art” (Pound 323). Ιn Modernist poetry, images traverse through time, allowing the readers to experience the multiple shades of previous realities, which may ostensibly seem meaningless yet feasibly meaningful. Finally, the image stops being an ornament as it now obtains a vibrant role in the formation and understanding of the human consciousness, which is influenced by the two World Wars that radically changed the psychosynthesis of humans.
Specifically, in “The Mind Is an Enchanting Thing,” Moore employs a great bulk of perplexing images venturing to capture the stupefying abilities of the mind and its multilayered structure, which emerges amid the Second World War, signifying its derangement, fallibility, and paradoxical power that can push one to the darkest recesses of the abyss both emotionally and psychologically. The persona in Moore’s poem guides the readers towards perceiving the frame of the mind by employing simile and imagery in order to manifest its bewitching capability perceived by the canonical and exquisite things surrounding us. Though the mind seems abstract and indefinite, the establishment of novel and fresh perspectives allows the readers to envision its enchanting mental powers. The intellectual power of the mind becomes diaphanous, signaled by the aural image appearing in Moore’s poem, as shown in the following line referring to “Gieseking playing Scarlatti” (Moore 349), disclosing its ability to calculate and synthesize unimaginable things expediently and faultlessly. What the mind leverages to accomplish as this paradoxical Scarlatti image reveals, it does possess the inexhaustible energy of the imagination, which “not only allows the poet to invoke comparisons that are fresh, interesting and constructive but to achieve a level of thought that is all-encompassing” (Rees 233). The analogy that Moore creates between the mind and the apteryx - a featherless species of bird- creates expectations for the readers in their effort to envision a flimsy, perishable mind because “it walks with its eyes on the ground” (Moore 349). However, the self-liberating disposition of the mind aids its effort in canvassing the necessary routes to excavate its genuine position in the surrounding environment, where the mind becomes ready to unleash “a vital, creative force sparked by interactions with its world, [and transmogrify into] an active player in its environment” (Buxton 547). Through these interactions and experiences, the mind manages to attain an all-encompassing way of thinking, as Ralph Rees contends. The mind, throughout the poem, displays its enthralling mental capacities and its multifarious nature, which can be conceived by the seemingly diverse and, at the same time, ordinary traits that characterize it.
Delving into the poem further, the ravishing abilities of the mind, which transcend the dull boundaries of mediocrity and ordinariness, bring to the fore not only its sturdy nature but also its capability to obliterate adversities. The mind is presented in the poem “Like the gyroscope’s fall” (Moore 349), which is a very sturdy instrument used for maintaining and measuring orientation. Through the lens of the gyroscope, the mind procures qualities of resilience, sturdiness, and mightiness, which enable it to navigate through the mazes of doubt that venture to control, disorient, and, ultimately, ensnared it. Its self-liberating substance, lying at the core of the mind that enables it to move beyond the repressive shackles of ambiguity. The mind has the phenomenal capability of merging reality with imagination, signifying that “the thought can be extended far beyond the usual boundaries; … imagination carries the thought from the original stimuli to the most extreme comparisons” (Rees 240). This allows for new perspectives to emerge that can steer the mind away from labyrinthine political and stormy ideologies, as it has been the case during the Second World War whose atrocities and barbarities had derived from the disoriented minds and forces at work at the time. Throughout the poem, the readers can envisage the mind as a well-regulated mechanism that not only composes elements emanating from disparate dimensions but also possesses the mental powers to dissolve obstructions, which afflicts its imaginative creative thinking. The mind, as Moore writes, “It tears off the veil; tears/ the temptation, the/ mist …” (Moore 349), disclosing that its “genuine power comes from its flexibility and openness” (Miller 368) and its mental capacities allow it to transgress enclosures that decrease its perceptiveness. The metaphor that reverberates throughout the poem is that the mind assists us in counteracting sentiments of dismay, disgruntlement, and disenchantment, which numb our intellectual strength. The organic nature and the sturdy structure of the mind enable it to deploy imagination as a means through which nefarious feelings that inflict the mind’s perspective can be tackled and eradicated.
Moore’s poem thoroughly commemorates the bewitching mental capacities of the mind, permitting it to annihilate handicaps that emerge, but the mind must eschew hazardous ideologies, leading it to vehemences and paroxysms. In the final stanza of the poem, the utilization of similarly sounding words such as “confusion unconfusion” (Moore 349) echoes the liminal state as it can oscillate between order and disorder. According to Racher Buxton, Moore’s “1944 poem states that our minds are both ‘enchanted’ and ‘enchanting’, both acted upon by the world and active upon it.” (548). What this juxtaposition vibrates loudly is that the mind’s mightiness is not an everlasting quality, as it can be deceiving and “enchanted” (Moore 349), forfeiting the effectiveness of its cognitive powers. The final line of the poem functions as a twist for a simile employed to describe the mind, which is not “the Herod’s oath that cannot change” (Moore 349). Through this analogy, the readership realizes that the mind can be obsessed with things and be pushed to the wrong paths, effectuating devastating effects. The initial letter of Herod alludes to another grievous political figure during the turbulent period of the Second World War, “who swore to massacre populations on the basis of cultural-racial or political identity” (Miller 367). When the mind sticks to stagnant patterns and static ideologies, it culminates in the perpetuation and dissemination of societal pathogens, obstructing society from prosperity and progress. Bounded by prejudices and racist beliefs, the mind remains unable to cultivate and foster the seeds that will allow the blossoming of healthy relationships among humans, which will sustain and mold the power dynamics and policies of society.
In her previous poem, Moore celebrates the power and the benefits of the imagination, which help people escape the harsh second world war reality. The poem “Nevertheless” serves almost as a response to the preceding elaboration on the mightiness of the mind, as now the persona attempts to reawaken humanity's lost positive feelings. Through the unconventional natural images, it resorts to, the persona highlights the human essence and hope for a bright future without being under the shadow of elimination. To counterattack the austerity and obscurity of the Second World War period, Moore resorts to the use of visual images, as evidenced in the following line – “you've seen a strawberry that's had a struggle; yet was, where the fragments met, a hedgehog or a star-fish” (Moore 1) – in an attempt to resuscitate the transformative abilities that humans possess as long as they continue thriving. The change of the strawberry image into a completely different thing discloses the undiscovered potential of every single object at a time when everyone and everything was faced with the threat of eradication. It also becomes evident “that identity is not immutable but is created by the stratification of experiences in time” (Sborgi 269), which emphasizes the uncovering of all the hidden potential, inner power, and imagination that each individual possesses so that intellectual and emotional magnificence and exceptionality can be reached. Perseverance is vital for one to achieve this radical and substantial metamorphosis, which becomes evident in the image, used in the poem, of “a grape tendril ties a knot in knots till knotted thirty times” (Moore 1,2). Through this image, the persona accentuates the fundamental importance of persistence for our personal growth, especially during dark times when the light of hope starts flickering. This becomes evident in the following line from the poem when the persona reminds humanity to keep steadily flowering until “the bound twig that's under-gone and over-gone, can't stir” (Moore 2). By resorting to a grapevine image, Moore sheds light on the kind of energy that can be generated in the way words can be combined as highlighted here. The reference to the “bound twig,” serving as a visual and aural image, the alliterative effects that derive from the reference to the “under-gone” and “over-gone” reverberate the human struggles to cling on to the virtues of perseverance and patience which will help them confront a possible upcoming of fatal annihilation of the humankind. Conclusively, Moore’s deployment of natural paradoxical images is compatible with the imagist credo of Pound who suggests “[d]irect treatment of the ‘thing’ whether subjective or objective [and] [the] use… of no word that does not contribute to the presentation (Pound 322). This principle is fundamental in her poems because her images are not ornamental but have multiple shades capturing the harsh reality of the Second World War conflict.
The hardships and ominous atmosphere engulfing the poem not only highlight the conflicting socio-political context of the wartime period but also the socio-cultural changes the American society had undergone, as mentioned earlier in the current essay, which proves that personal growth is feasible under life-threatening circumstances. Especially, the images used in the line, “Frost that kills the little rubber-plant -leaves of kok-sagyyz-stalks” (Moore 1) exemplify continuous tribulations and throes that may lead to the loss of human essence. Similarly, to the frost that numbs and thwarts the delicate plants, poisonous politics can lead individuals to emotional and psychological death if they succumb to the loss of their patience and perseverance in their struggle to survive against cruelties and adversities. With the human race being on a quest for endurance, the poem functions as a “response to World War II, its dislocation of entire communities, and its transformation of humans into… objects for the purposes of warfare” (Volpicelli 644). Although this image of the “Frost that kills” (Moore 1) provokes negative, dismal, and disheartening emotions regarding the future of humanity, the juxtapositions the poem activates offer a glimpse of hope. The persona contends that “the roots; they still grow in frozen ground” (Moore 1), which turns the readers’ attention to the existence of an optimistic potential for a promising future. Under the guidance of tenacity and persistence, people can liberate themselves from the uncongenial political maze they have been caught in and have the opportunity to flourish even in a hostile environment because the human spirit remains indomitable despite the prominence of war cruelty and absurdity. What lies at the core of this poem is the individual’s challenge of not losing the virtue of perseverance, as it is of “fundamental importance for the completeness of the self” (Sborgi 269). Finally, the poem starts enlightening the readers about the benefits of persistence and patience while it constitutes an immediate response to the importance of holding on to hope amid war.
Reaching the final lines of the poem, the overreaching theme of persistence with the ultimate aim to prosper even in adverse conditions becomes even more intense and blatant, enhancing the people’s morale in their attempts to keep on moving forward: “Victory won't come to me unless I go to it” (Moore 1) the persona claims. Inviting us to reconsider the choices one has either of giving up and pathetically accepting the worst or fighting for the creation of opportunities, the persona of the poem, via the use of the image already mentioned, contributes to the awakening of the readers from the lethargy of the World War that menaces not only their existence but also their resilient nature, which is the sole weapon people have in order to grow and be empowered in a world where fear and hopelessness seem to be the new foundations for the future generations. As Linda Leavell asseverates “Moore believed that art can make the power of the invisible visible” (258), and thus, through the lines of her poem, she ventures towards invoking the virtues of persistence and the ambitions of prosperity, which tend to get buried under the debris of political turmoil as was the case with the Second World War. The final visual image, closing the poem, concludes the theme of determination in the face of adversities in an era of madness: “What sap went through that little thread to make the cherry red!” (Moore 2), the persona exclaims. By paralleling the sap with the challenges and ferocities, the speaking voice in the poem tries to energize the readers’ inner persistence and patience even when all working forces are against us. Moreover, the reference to the little red cherry perhaps alludes to a tiny heart that continues beating under inhumane conditions. The inner enduring strength of individuals can become an eternal source of power so that humanity surpasses from a condition of annihilation to a condition of fertile creativity away from the darkness, a situation that traverses us to the Middle Ages. As Robert Volpicelli argues, “During this same period, Moore also grew intensely opposed to a sort of fascism of the fabricated world” (648), with her poem attempting to overthrow the current political situation by resorting to the medium of poetry in an effort to restore hope in the lives of people. Finally, with her poems, Moore ventures to reestablish in their memory that tenacity and persistence can lead the human race to ultimate growth.
Considering all the above, Marianne Moore’s poems “The Mind Is an Enchanting Thing” and “Nevertheless” offer an in-depth understanding of human consciousness and condition. The first poem memorializes the mind’s immense mental capacities to perform rapidly a variety of things but, at the same time, discloses its incompetence when it is contaminated by certain ideologies; whereas the latter one resurfaces the inner transformative potential of the individual, which can be energized by the virtue of persistence, especially at times of darkness. The poems can be seen as rays of sunlight amid adversities in WWII when depressive and nefarious sentiments are prevalent. The vulnerability of the mind can be fought only with resistance against impure ideologies that prolong discrimination; while in “Nevertheless,” persistence can pave the path towards powerful development. Finally, these 1944 poems voice the mind’s tremendous mental capacities that continuously grow by bringing to the surface the fundamental trait of human tenacity at times of crisis, which makes survival under adverse circumstances possible while enhancing critical thinking towards confronting the dangers that threaten progression and prosperity. As proven in the present analysis, modernist poetry serves as an immediate response to the humanitarian crisis endangering individuals’ lives by arming them with optimism and firmness in their effort to confront life-threatening conditions and pave new paths that will culminate in the dawning of a new era of hope.
WORKS CITED
Buxton, Rachel. “Marianne Moore and the Poetics of Pragmatism.” Review of English Studies 58.236, 2007, pp.531-551.
Leavell, Linda. “When Marianne Moore Buys Pictures.” American Literary History, vol. 5, no. 2, 1993, pp. 250–71. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/48974 7. Accessed 10 Sept. 2024.
Loeffelholz, Mary. “The 1930s.” The Norton Anthology of American Literature, edited by Robert S. Levine and Mary Loeffelholz, 9th ed., Vol. D, W.W. Norton and Company, 2018, pp. 11-13.
Miller, Cristanne. "Distrusting: Marianne Moore on Feeling and War in the 1940s." American Literature 80.2, 2008, pp. 353-379.
Moore, Marianne. “Nevertheless.” Nevertheless, The Macmillan Co, 1944, pp.1-2.
---“The Mind Is an Enchanting Thing.” The Norton Anthology of American Literature, edited by Robert S. Levine and Mary Loeffelholz, 9th ed., Vol. D, W.W. Norton and Company, 2018, p.349.
Pound, Ezra. “From A Retrospect.” The Norton Anthology of American Literature, edited by Robert S. Levine and Mary Loeffelholz, 9th ed., Vol. D, W.W. Norton and Company, 2018, pp. 322-323.
Rees, Ralph. “The Reality of Imagination in the Poetry of Marianne Moore.” Twentieth Century Literature, vol. 30, no. 2/3, 1984, pp. 231-241. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/441115. Accessed 10 Sept. 2024.
Sborgi, Anna Viola. “Between Literature and the Visual Arts: Portraits of the Self in William Carlos Williams, Marianne Moore, and Fernando Pessoa.” Stories and Portraits of the Self. Brill, 2007, pp. 267-279.
Volpicelli, Robert. “Against Things: The At–Home Objects of Marianne Moore.” Twentieth Century Literature, vol. 58, no. 4, 2012, pp. 640-662. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/2424702. Accessed 10 Sept. 2024.
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