The Past is the Present
Marianne Moore 1887 (Kirkwood) – 1972 (New York City)
If external action is effete
and rhyme is outmoded,
I shall revert to you,
Habakkuk, as when in a Bible class
the teacher was speaking of unrhymed verse.
He said - and I think I repeat his exact words -
"Hebrew poetry is prose
with a sort of heightened consciousness." Ecstasy affords
the occasion and expediency determines the form.
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 17, 2023
- 18 sec read
- 117 Views
Quick analysis:
| Scheme | ABCDEFGHI |
|---|---|
| Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
| Characters | 334 |
| Words | 62 |
| Stanzas | 1 |
| Stanza Lengths | 9 |
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"The Past is the Present" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 19 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/26363/the-past-is-the-present>.
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