Observations was published by The Dial Press in 1924 (Moore was editor of The Dial at the time, which created an awkward but unavoidable situation) and is her first substantial American collection — fifty-three poems that established her method: precise observation of the natural and cultural world, rendered in syllabic verse of extraordinary formal invention, governed by an ethical intelligence that found moral lessons in everything from pangolins to baseball.
The Poems
“An Octopus” — one of the great American nature poems: a description of Mount Rainier’s glaciers that is simultaneously a meditation on the sublime, on national parks, on the relationship between description and understanding. The poem incorporates quotations from National Park Service pamphlets, building poetry from bureaucratic prose.
“Marriage” — Moore’s longest and most complex poem, a collage of quotations from sources ranging from the Bible to Scientific American, assembled into an argument about the institution that is simultaneously feminist, comic, and genuinely ambivalent.
“Poetry” — the famous poem that begins “I, too, dislike it” and goes on to define genuine poetry as containing “imaginary gardens with real toads in them.” Moore revised this poem obsessively throughout her life, eventually reducing it to three lines.
“The Fish” — precision observation of marine life rendered in syllabic stanzas of extraordinary visual and musical beauty.
“When I Buy Pictures” — on the relationship between the viewer and the artwork, establishing Moore’s characteristic stance: attentive, demanding, morally serious about aesthetic objects.
Method
Moore’s poetry is unlike anyone else’s. Her verse is syllabic — counting syllables rather than stresses — which gives it a regularity that the ear registers without being able to identify. Her stanzas are architecturally precise: if the first stanza has lines of 7, 5, 9, 6, and 8 syllables, every subsequent stanza will match that pattern exactly.
Within this formal structure, she deploys quotation, scientific language, advertising copy, and conversational speech — all woven together with a wit that can take several readings to appreciate. Her subjects are typically animals, artworks, or cultural phenomena observed with the precision of a naturalist and the moral seriousness of a preacher.
Collecting Observations
First edition (The Dial Press, New York, 1924): Blue cloth binding with gold lettering. Decorated boards. Limited to approximately 500 copies.
Identification points:
- The Dial Press imprint
- 1924 date
- 53 poems
- Decorated boards by H.G. Forsberg
- Small format
Market values: Fine copies bring $2,000–$5,000. The small printing (approximately 500 copies) and the book’s physical delicacy make truly fine copies scarce.
Signed copies: $4,000–$8,000.
Note: Moore’s first book was actually Poems (1921), published without her knowledge by H.D. and Bryher at The Egoist Press in London (only 24 poems, approximately 500 copies). That book brings $3,000–$8,000.
Observations is the book Moore intended as her debut — the first collection she personally selected and arranged — and it contains the poems that define her method.