Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

A FOOL, A FOUL THING, A DISTRESSFUL LUNATIC by MARIANNE MOORE

Poet Analysis

First Line: WITH WEBS OF COOL
Last Line: IN FOLLY'S CATALOGUE, DISTRESSFUL LUNATIC?
Subject(s): NATURE;
WITH webs of cool
Chain mail and his stout heart, is not the gander
Mocked, and ignorantly designated yet,
To play the fool?
"Egyptian vultures clean as cherubim,
All ivory and jet," are they most foul?
And nature's child,
That most precocious water bird, the loon—why
Is he foremost in the madman's alphabet;
Why is he styled
In folly's catalogue, distressful lunatic?



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