You do not seem to realize that beauty is a liability ratherthanan asset - that in view of the fact that spirit creates formwe are justified in supposingthat you must have brains. For you, a symbol of theunit, stiff and sharp, conscious of surpassing by dint of native superiority andliking for everythingself-dependent, anything anambitious civilization might produce: for you, unaided, toattempt through sheerreserve, to confuse presumptions resulting fromobservation, is idle. You cannot make usthink you a delightful happen-so. But rose, if you arebrilliant, itis not because your petals are the without-which-nothingof pre-eminence. Would you not, minusthorns, be a what-is-this, a mereperculiarity? They are not proof against a worm, theelements, or mildew;but what about the predatory hand? What is brilliancewithout co-ordination? Guarding theinfinitesimal pieces of your mind, compelling audience tothe remark that it is better to be forgotten than to be re-membered too violently, your thorns are the best part of you. Marianne Moore
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  2. He drew a circle that shut me out- Heretic , rebel, a thing to flout. But love and I had the wit to win: We drew a circle and took him In ! From the poem " Outwitted - Edwin Markham

  3. Maybe you could be mine / or maybe we’ll be entwined / aimless in this sexless foreplay. - Jess C. Scott

  4. The only sea I saw Was the seesaw sea With you riding on it. Lie down, lie easy. Let me shipwreck in your thighs. - Dylan Thomas

  5. I would kiss you in the middle of the ocean during a lightning storm cuz I'd rather be left for dead than wondering what thunder sounds like. - Andrea Gibson

More Quotes By Marianne Moore
  1. ... imaginary gardens with real toads in them ...... if you demand on one hand, the raw material of poetry inall its rawness andthat which is on the other handgenuine, then you are interested in poetry.

  2. Poetry...... a place for the genuine, Hands that can grasp, eyesthat can dilate, hair that can rise

  3. Any writer overwhelmingly honest about pleasing himself is almost sure to please others.

  4. Wolf's wool is the best wool, but it cannot be sheared, because the wolf will not comply. With knowledge as with wolves' surliness, the student studies voluntarily, refusing to be less than individual. He "gives his opinion and then rests upon it"; he renders service...

  5. They fought the enemy, we fight fat living and self-pity. Shine, o shine, unfalsifying sun, on this sick scene.

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