Modernist Poet Marianne Moore Inspired by Jews?

Unlike many of the modernist poets—Ezra Pound for example—who exhibited "varying degrees of anti-Semitism," Marianne Moore found poetic inspiration in Jewish literary tradition. At Forward, Benjamin Ivry speaks with Linda Leavell, author of the recent Marianne Moore biography Holding On Upside Down and editor of a reprinted edition of Moore's Observations, about how Jewish culture influenced her.

American modernist poets, including T.S. Eliot, Ezra Pound, Wallace Stevens, and William Carlos Williams, were notorious for differing degrees of anti-Semitism, but their colleague Marianne Moore (1887–1972) was uniquely inspired by Jewish tradition and lore. Linda Leavell edited a recently published edition of Marianne Moore’s landmark first poetry collection, “Observations” (1924). She has also published on Moore and the visual arts, and a biography of the poet from Farrar, Straus & Giroux. A professor emerita of English at Oklahoma State University, Leavell spoke with “The Forward’s” Benjamin Ivry from her home in Fayetteville, Arkansas about what drew Marianne Moore to Yiddishkeit.

Benjamin Ivry: Why was it that unlike other American modernist poets, Marianne Moore was inspired by Jews instead of despising them?

Linda Leavell: I think it has a lot to do with her Presbyterian upbringing. She and her mother moved to Carlisle, Pennsylvania, where there was a rather liberal church or what we call liberal today. The pastor of the church was fiercely appreciative of the Indian students who would come to school at Carlisle. So she grew up in an atmosphere of tolerance. Her experience in her family made her value freedom and individuality.

Could one reason be that Moore did not adopt a European identity or persona unlike Pound or Eliot, and so did not assume European traditions of anti-Semitism?

I think definitely. She very firmly identified as American. She did identify with Ireland to some degree, and was interested in Irish independence. As a Scots-Irish American, she identified with being oppressed by Europe, with people who were in the margins rather than with the mainline culture.

Read more at Forward.