Collected Poems was published by Macmillan in 1951 and won both the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry and the National Book Award — a double honor that confirmed Moore’s status as one of the two or three most important American poets then living (alongside Stevens and Williams). It gathers her work from 1921 to 1951, presenting it in the forms she preferred at that date — which means substantially revised from earlier appearances.
The Collection
The book presents approximately 120 poems arranged in the sections:
- Selected Poems (from the 1935 volume, further revised)
- What Are Years (from the 1941 volume)
- Nevertheless (from the 1944 volume)
- Hitherto Uncollected
The cumulative effect is overwhelming. Moore’s method — which in individual poems can seem merely clever or merely precise — reveals itself across 120 poems as a comprehensive vision: the natural world observed with scientific accuracy and moral seriousness, rendered in forms of extraordinary invention, governed by an intelligence that finds in every subject (animals, artworks, places, ideas) material for ethical reflection.
The Revision Problem
Moore revised compulsively. “Poetry” — her most famous poem — exists in versions ranging from thirty lines to three. Other poems are cut, expanded, retitled, or rearranged between editions. The Collected Poems of 1951 represents one state of a permanently unstable text.
This creates difficulty for readers and collectors: which version is “the poem”? Moore insisted that the latest version was always the best (the artist’s right to revise), but many readers prefer earlier, longer, more expansive forms. The Complete Poems of 1967 further complicates matters by presenting yet another set of final revisions.
Collecting Collected Poems
First edition (Macmillan, New York, 1951): Green cloth binding with gold lettering. Dust jacket with Moore’s distinctive tricorne hat silhouette.
Identification points:
- Macmillan imprint
- “First Printing” stated
- 180 pages
Market values: Fine copies in dust jacket bring $300–$800. The dual-prize association (Pulitzer and National Book Award) and Moore’s cultural celebrity (she was by this time a recognized public figure — the woman in the tricorne hat throwing out the first pitch at Yankee Stadium) support steady demand.
Signed copies: $800–$2,000. Moore was a gracious signer at public events.
The book’s authority as the definitive Moore — the volume that won both major prizes — makes it the essential collecting target for anyone assembling a library of major American poetry.