"Marriage"

Bruce Henderson (Essay Date 1992)

SOURCE: Henderson, Bruce. "The 'Eternal Eve' and 'The Newly Born Woman': Voices, Performance, and Marianne Moore's 'Marriage'." In Images of the Self as Female: The Achievement of Women Artists in Reenvisioning Feminine Identity, edited by Kathryn N. Benzel and Lauren Pringle De La Vars, pp. 119-33. Lewiston, N.Y.: The Edwin Mellen Press, 1992.

In the following essay, Henderson considers "Marriage" to be "the most complicated treatment by Moore of issues typically associated with the lives of women as women."

1987 marked the centenary of the birth of Marianne Moore, a poet more discussed than read, more often alluded to than analyzed: happily, with her centenary there seems to be a resurgence of interest in both the life and art of this idiosyncratic, yet often profoundly eloquent poet. Feminist critics and readers in particular have begun to revise earlier estimates of Moore...