Transcriber’s Notes: Underscores “_” before and after a word or phrase indicate _italics_ in the original text. Small capitals have been converted to SOLID capitals. Typographical errors have been silently corrected. POEMS BY MARIANNE MOORE LONDON THE EGOIST PRESS _2 Robert Street, Adelphi, W.C._ 1921 _Several of these poems appeared in_ THE EGOIST; _others in_ THE DIAL, OTHERS _and_ CONTACT. CONTENTS PEDANTIC LITERALIST 5 TO A STEAM ROLLER 6 DILIGENCE IS TO MAGIC AS PROGRESS IS TO FLIGHT 6 THOSE VARIOUS SCALPELS 7 FEED ME, ALSO, RIVER GOD, 8 TO WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS ON TAGORE 8 HE MADE THIS SCREEN 9 TALISMAN 9 BLACK EARTH 10 “HE WROTE THE HISTORY BOOK,” IT SAID 12 YOU ARE LIKE THE REALISTIC PRODUCT OF AN IDEALISTIC SEARCH FOR GOLD AT THE FOOT OF THE RAINBOW 12 REINFORCEMENTS 13 ROSES ONLY 13 IN THIS AGE OF HARD TRYING NONCHALANCE IS GOOD, AND 14 THE FISH 14 MY APISH COUSINS 16 WHEN I BUY PICTURES 17 PICKING AND CHOOSING 18 ENGLAND 19 DOCK RATS 20 RADICAL 21 POETRY 22 IN THE DAYS OF PRISMATIC COLOR 23 IS YOUR TOWN NINEVEH? 24 POEMS BY MARIANNE MOORE PEDANTIC LITERALIST Prince Rupert’s drop, paper muslin ghost, white torch—“with pow’r to say unkind things with kindness, and the most irritating things in the midst of love and tears,” you invite destruction. You are like the meditative man with the perfunctory heart; its carved cordiality ran to and fro at first, like an inlaid and roy’l immutable production; then afterward “neglected to be painful” and “deluded him with loitering formality, doing its duty as if it did it not,” presenting an obstruction