Whats an analysis of Marianne Moores “Silence?
The poem presents itself as an exercise in the very restraint bordering on silence that the father recommends. This restraint is demonstrated on two levels, and the relation of the two informs the poem’s meanings importantly as any reading of the words. At the first of these levels the speaker restrains her speech, repeating two sayings of “her father” and herself offering only the three lines “My father used to say,” “Nor was he insincere in saying” and the concluding “Inns are not residences.” At the second level arrived at through reference to the notes, we learn that the poet also has restrained herself, giving place to the words of others in two instances. Thus, the quotation marks function not merely as signs of the difference between reported speeches and prefatory remarks. They note also the actual quieting of a poet, though the notes demonstrate that she has exercised some vocal power as well, altering the material she borrows and adding to it freely. Though it is full of asse
