Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

IS YOUR TOWN NINEVEH? by MARIANNE MOORE

Poet Analysis

First Line: WHY SO DESOLATE?
Last Line: AT THE STATUE OF LIBERTY.
Subject(s): JEHOSHAPHAT (BIBLE);
WHY so desolate?
in phantasmagoria about fishes,
what disgusts you? Could
not all personal upheaval in
the name of freedom, be tabooed?

Is it Nineveh
and are you Jonah
in the sweltering east wind of your wishes?
I myself, have stood
there by the acquarium, looking
at the Statue of Liberty.



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