Abstract
Willis explores Moore’s early interest in Blake’s pictures and poetry and her seventeen poems, written between 1914 and 1919, that reference Blake. Willis demonstrates that Moore mines Blake’s illustrations to Paradise Lost in “In the Days of Prismatic Color,” “When I Buy Pictures,” and “Inheritance.” She adopts from his “Milton” the position that “contrarieties are equally true”—that opposite ideas can be held in balance, which is key to such statements as “imaginary gardens with real toads / in them” from “Poetry.” By 1924 Moore has so mastered holding contrarieties in balance that she can present opposing views of nature and of civilization in “An Octopus,” a development that would mark her work long after she named Blake as her inspiration.
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Willis, P.C. (2018). “Contrarieties Equally True”: Marianne Moore and William Blake. In: Gregory, E., Hubbard, S. (eds) Twenty-First Century Marianne Moore. Modern and Contemporary Poetry and Poetics. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-65109-5_6
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