Marianne Moore's Observations stands with T. S. Eliot's The Waste Land, Ezra Pound's early Cantos, and Wallace Stevens's Harmonium as a landmark of modern poetry. But, to the chagrin of many admirers, Moore eliminated a third of its contents from her subsequent poetry collections while radically revising some of the poems she retained. This groundbreaking book has been unavailable to the general reader since its original publication in the 1920s.
"Marianne Moore's Observations are personal and historical, and always intensely modern. Clearly a figurehead, she's armed with a quiver of wit and perfect aim. This poet bends the natural and man-made until each turn conveys a physical intellect and a music distinctly hers. Throughout this collection, Moore's unique signature becomes a capsule of tonal time and playful contemplation through compelling imagery. This reissue of Observations realigns and claims Moore's place within the modernist tradition as she continues to speak to us."
