An Excerpt From Marianne Moore
E.O. Goldbeck, detail, New York City, 1974. Ransom
Center Photography Collection.
From . . . What Are Years
. . . So he who strongly feels,
behaves. The very bird,
grown taller as he sings, steels
his form straight up. Though he is captive,
his mighty singing
says, satisfaction is a lowly
thing, how pure a thing is joy.
. . . This is mortality,
. . . This is eternity.
What Are Years, New York, Macmillan, 1941.
