To a Snail

'To a Snail': Marianne Moore

Marianne Moore was born in 1887 in the US state of Missouri. Raised in her pastor grandfather’s home, she moved with her family to Pennsylvania after his death in 1894. She graduated in 1909 from Bryn Mawr College with a BA in biology and histology. Bryn Mawr was a private liberal arts university for women and the first American university to educate women up to PhD level. It was here that her first poem, 'A Jellyfish' (1908) was published.

Following her degree, Moore studied typing and then became a teacher at the Carlisle Indian School.

Moore and her mother moved to New York City in 1918. There she worked at the New York Public Library before becoming editor of the prestigious literary magazine, Dial. Through Dial, she met Imagist poets like Carlos Williams and Hilda Doolittle aka, HD. HD surprised her by publishing Moore's first book of poems, Poems (1921) without telling her.

This publication launched Moore’s career and she went on to become an award-winning poet, famous for her precision, irony, wit and seemingly paradoxically, her ambiguous statements. For example, her poem, 'Poetry' (1920) begins with:

Moore won the National Book Award and a Pulitzer, making her one of the most famous American Modernist poets. In addition to poetry, she wrote prose on subjects from art to baseball. A versatile writer, she also penned the liner notes for Muhammad Ali’s record, 'I am the Greatest' (1963).

After a long and illustrious career, she died in New York City in 1972.

'To a Snail': poem

'To a Snail': summary

The poem, 'To a Snail' is ostensibly about a snail. Moore initially describes the attributes of a snail in great detail rather than any of its physical characteristics. She mentions its ability to 'compress' or 'contract' and links this as an aesthetic principle that is relevant to poetry.

Further into the poem, she speaks about the snail's physical aspects. She mentions a 'lack of feet'. Poems can contain 'feet' but snails only have one foot. This is another type of contraction or compression value. Lastly, she talks about the snail's 'occipital horn'. Similar to how she links the attribute of 'contraction' to poetic aesthetics or style, she links the 'lack of feet' and the 'occipital horn' to poetic and rhetorical values.

'To a Snail': analysis

'To a Snail' is a fairly short poem that links the attributes of a snail to rhetorical or aesthetic principles. Moore achieves her signature effects in a variety of ways. Let's look at a few.

'To a Snail': poetic terms and movement

'To a Snail' is a Modernist poem, considered part of the Imagist style. The Imagists sought to elevate what was regarded as the mundane and everyday to the poetic. They wanted to create images with words.

The poem is a blason. This poetic term is used to describe poems that feature physical descriptions, traditionally those of a woman. The device was bought into general use by the poet Petrarch of the Petrarchan Sonnet fame. Blasons would usually describe a woman’s physical features by comparing them to traditionally beautiful and valuable items like jewels, ivory, or celestial bodies. Modern examples substitute a woman, usually a lover, with a snail in Moore’s case or a boyfriend in Camille Guthrie’s case.¹

Moore subverts the traditional blason form in two ways. Firstly, she describes a snail and not the physical features of a lover, male or female. Secondly, instead of favourably comparing a lover's physical features to traditionally beautiful and valuable objects, she compares the snail’s attributes to abstract principles of poetic craft.

'To a Snail': structure

The poem is a single stanza that is 12 lines long, written in free verse with no set meter or rhyme scheme.

Although she avoids a set rhyme scheme, Moore uses slant rhyme throughout the poem. Examples include the slant rhyme created by the consonance in the words, 'Contractility', (line 2) 'modesty' (line 3) and 'quality' (line 6).

'To a Snail': poetic techniques

Devices and techniques used by Moore in 'To a Snail' range from enjambment to repetition, epistrophe, and alliteration.

Enjambment

Examples of enjambment can be seen in 'To a Snail' in the lines below. In lines 2–3, the use of enjambment links the concepts of contractility and modesty, reinforcing the link created by the repetition of the word 'virtue'. For lines 6–7, the effect is similar. The lines run into each other, creating one long sentence that combines the elements of quality and something well said. The word 'concomitant' means something that is naturally associated, so this further enhances the link.

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Repetition

Moore repeatedly makes use of quotations throughout the poem. These quotes directly reference works by famous philosophers, based on other works by previous philosophers.

An example is the central quote 'Compression is the first grace of style'. This is often attributed to the philosopher, Democritus. It was actually used even earlier by the Athenian, Demetrius. He wrote a little less concisely: 'The very first grace of style is that which comes from compression.'² When these were written and even whether Demetrius is the original creator of the line is up for debate, so the origins and timeline are murky.

Moore uses this line of often tweaked wisdom in quotations, acknowledging that it is not her creation. The reference to another text is very direct and obvious but what is less obvious is the layers of history behind it. This reflects her style of poetry. A seemingly simple approach with a complexity that is there for those that look past the immediate subject matter.

Epistrophe

Linked to repetition is epistrophe.

The word 'virtue' is repeated in lines 2 and 3. The word 'style' is repeated in lines 1 and 8. These repetitions serve to create rhythm and reinforce words that are important to the meaning of the poem. Moore is highlighting the tangible aesthetic (style) and linking it to the abstract (virtue), which is an approach that is evident throughout the poem.

Alliteration

You can see examples with the repeated 'a' in 'acquisition' (line 4,) 'any' (line 4) and 'able to adorn' (line 5).

'To a Snail': meaning

'To a Snail' is as much about a snail as it is about poetry.

There are many possible readings of 'To a Snail' but it is clear that the poem is about a snail but also poetic precision and stylistic perceptivity.

Moore uses an extended metaphor, linking the snail’s ability to contract with the need for a poet to edit their work to a more precise and pithy version. She makes puns about ‘no feet’, linking poetic meter to the snail’s physical attribute of having only one foot. Initially, it seems as if she is using the snail as a way to talk about ‘higher’ abstract principles.

However, in the final line, she uses a seemingly biological term, 'occipital horn'. This is a portmanteau that is scientific-sounding but is made up by Moore. The occipital part of a mammal's brain is the primary visual cortex: it processes images. A snail uses the horn to sense its way, rather than see its way.

Moore creates two important meanings with one phrase. Firstly, she shows that the poem is as much about the snail as it is about abstract principles. Secondly, she indicates her belief in the principle that poets should use all of their senses. Specifically, they should do this as concisely as possible.

¹ 'My Boyfriend', Poetry Foundation. 2022.

² Carol Rubens, 'Poem of the Week, To a Snail', The Guardian. 2017.