Illusion Is More Precise than Precision

>Erickson examines the work of Marianne Moore in order to provide some consistently successful strategies for understanding her poetry In 1935, T.S. Eliot wrote that Marianne Moores poems form part of the small body of durable poetry written in our time. In this comprehensive critical study of the American poet Marianne Moore (1887-1972) and her work, Erickson amply justifies Eliots praise, demonstrating the poets ability to combine close observation with a worldview presentation that is at once intuitive, kaleidoscopic, and optimistic. Unfortunately, over the years the excellence and originality of Moores work has been overshadowed by its apparent inscrutability. Erickson examines the work of Marianne Moore in order to provide some consistently successful strategies for understanding her poetry. The thesis is centered in a line from Moores poem, Armors Undermining Modesty: What is more precise than precision? Illusion. Erickson argues that Moore came to see herself humorously as Imagnifico, a Wizard in Words, a magician who used her conjuries to express a truth beyond reason, a truth described by the philosopher Henri Bergson as intuition, the highest stage of the evolution of human understanding. Is Ericksons contention that Moores sense of magic is inextricably bound up in her own uniquely feminine epistemology, the tendency to place great value on intuition, and to find ones own voice among collections of many voices. Illusion Is More Precise Than Precision demonstrates that Moores voice is arguably the strongest female voice in twentieth century American literature and that Moores poetic voice could hold its own in the company of the best of the other modernists. Unlike many current scholars, Erickson examines closely the texts of Moores poems themselves, allowing the poets own voice to speak clearly. The study explores Moores obsession with time, her preoccupation with the visual, her interest in the forms of Hebrew verse and her susceptibility to happiness, an outlook at some odds with the twentieth centurys fascination with the romance of failure. While the book is scholarly in its intent and carefully documented, it is eminently readable and will be of interest of anyone fascinated by the mind of a brilliant twentieth century woman.