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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE PAST IS THE PRESENT by MARIANNE MOORE

Poet Analysis

First Line: IF EXTERNAL ACTION IS EFFETE
Last Line: "THE OCCASION AND EXPEDIENCY DETERMINES THE FORM'."
Subject(s): HEBREW LITERATURE;
IF external action is effete
and rhyme is outmoded,
I shall revert to you,
Habakkuk, as on a recent occasion I was goaded
into doing, by XY, who was speaking of unrhymed verse.
This man said—I think that I repeat
his identical words:
"Hebrew poetry is
prose with a sort of heightened consciousness. 'Ecstasy affords
the occasion and expediency determines the form'."



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