Marianne Moore (1887-1972)
And Shall Life Pass an Old Maid By (1921)
It would seem so, judging by neat
Delineations of the lady, in her zeal to meet
Commiserations fitly, from beneath a dusty mask.
Convention’s face misleads the artist’s feet.
Bloody in youth, withered in age,
That powdered mask could not induce a more outrageous rage
Were it a poisoned thing and yet, for all its emptiness,
It dares to print a profile on the page.
It copies to the life, some freak
Of sentiment in lavender sprigged silk; bids bloodhounds speak
From picket gates, adjuring every lonely optimist
That he press on, and hastening, be meek.
Or it depicts an Amazon
Harsh voiced and candle-cheeked, a sort of blunderbuss, a Don
Quixote, crating wildly where incisive action is
Required – exploded – with its luster gone.
Regard unprejudiced, the plate
Of pewter with the satin rim – more lustrous, more sedate
When it’s a grandmother’s than when it’s polished by old maids.
Old maids exist but they’re precipitate.
How diagnose felicity?
It is an abstract thing, distributed impartially
Between good, bad, all sorts – and is renounceable.
Who knows where it may be, or may not be?