Marianne Moore: The Art of Poetry (The Paris Review Interviews, Vol. 4)
Marianne Moore (Marianne Moore tossing out the first ball, opening day at Yankee Stadium. Photo: Bob Olen, 1968. Marianne Moore Collection, Rosenbach Museum & Library, Philadelphia.)
Weighing the "profession" of writing:
Interviewer:
I was intrigued when you wrote that "American has in Wallace Stevens at least one artist whom professionalism will not demolish." What sort of literary professionalism did you have in mind? And do you find this a feature of America still?
Marianne Moore:
Yes. I think that writers sometimes lose verve and pugnacity, and he never would say "frame of reference" or "I wouldn't know." A question I am often asked is: What work can I find that will enable me to spend my whole time writing? Charles Ives, the composer, says, "You cannot set art off in a corner and hope for it to have vitality, reality, and substance. The fabric weaves itself whole. My work in music helped my business and my work in business helped my music." I am like Charles Ives. I guess Lawrence Durrell and Henry Miller would not agree with me.
Interviewer:
But how does professionalism make a writer lose his verve and pugnacity?
Moore:
Money may have something to do with it, and being regarded as a pundit. Wallace Stevens was really very much annoyed at being cataloged, categorized, and compelled to be scientific about what he was doing --- to give satisfaction, to answer the teachers. He wouldn't do that. I think the same of William Carlos Williams. I think he wouldn't make so much of the great American language if he were plausible and tractable. That's the beauty of it -- he is willing to be reckless. If you can't be that, what's the point of the whole thing?
Poet Marianne Moore (1887-1972) published numerous collections of poetry and essays, including Predilections: Literary Essays, 1955, O To Be a Dragon, 1959, and the edited anthology Homage to Henry James, 1971. The interview with The Paris Review was published in 1961.
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