SOURCE: Holley, Margaret. “Diligence, Magic.” In The Poetry of Marianne Moore: A Study in Voice and Value, pp. 18-43. Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 1987.

In the following essay, Holley provides an overview of poems written during the first several years of Moore's post-college career.

The seven years between her graduation in 1909 and her move in 1916 to Chatham, New Jersey, demanded patience and perseverance of Moore. She felt ready to embark on her profession as a writer, but on two fronts—daily work and publication—she had to move more slowly than she would have wished. She arrived home from college with idealistic hopes of beginning her career by writing book reviews, but her brother Warner eventually pointed out to her the practical and financial reality that their mother had supported the family for fourteen years and, as he put it, “I think we should do something to...