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Poetry I too, dislike it: there are things that are important beyond
all this fiddle,
Reading it, however, with a perfect contempt for it
one discovers in
it after all, a place for the genuine.

— Marianne Moore Collected Poems (1951)

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More quotes by Marianne Moore

You are not male nor female, but a plan
deep-set within the heart of man.

A writer is unfair to himself when he is unable to be hard on himself.

Beauty is everlasting
and dust is for a time.

The Poems of Marianne Moore (2003)

Maine should be pleased that its animal
is not a waverer, and rather
than fight, lets the primed quill fall.
Shallow oppressor, intruder,
insister, you have found a resister.

The Poems of Marianne Moore (2003)

Staff and effigy of the animal
which by shedding its skin
is a sign of renewal —
the symbol of medicine.

The Poems of Marianne Moore (2003)

All Marianne Moore quotes →

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Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Marianne Moore (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.