SOURCE: "Female Erotics," in American Poetry Review, Vol. 20, No. 3, May/June, 1991, pp. 9-14.

In the following essay, McMahon examines two poems which offer critical views of sex and matrimony, Marianne Moore's "Marriage" and Sandra McPherson's "Streamers. "

Marianne Moore

Elizabeth Bishop, in her essay "Efforts of Affection," gives us the most complete picture we have of Marianne Moore, and also points out the largest gaps in our understanding of Moore's difficult poetic:

Lately I have seen several references critical of [Moore's] poetry by feminist writers, one of whom describes her as 'a poet who controlled panic by presenting it as whimsy.' Whimsy is sometimes there, of course, and so is humor (a gift these critics sadly seem to lack). Surely there is an element of mortal panic and fear underlying all works of art? Even so, one wonders how much of Marianne's poetry the feminist critics have read...