What Are Years was published by Macmillan in 1941 — Moore’s first collection of entirely new poems since Observations (1924), and the book that proved the seventeen-year gap between collections had not diminished her powers but deepened them. Written as Europe descended into war and America moved toward involvement, the poems address courage, endurance, and the moral obligations of living in catastrophic times — subjects that the earlier Moore, for all her brilliance, had rarely engaged so directly.
The Poems
“What Are Years?” — the title poem, one of Moore’s supreme achievements and one of the great short poems in English. “What is our innocence, / what is our guilt? All are / naked, none is safe.” In seventeen lines, Moore defines human dignity as the capacity to maintain joy and integrity despite imprisonment — literal or metaphorical. The poem’s formal structure (syllabic verse in a precise stanza pattern) enacts what it describes: order maintained under pressure.
“In Distrust of Merits” — Moore’s most direct response to World War II, and her most controversially self-lacerating poem. “There never was a war that was / not inward; I must / fight till I have conquered in myself what / causes war.” Many critics considered this her finest poem; Moore herself distrusted it, calling it “haphazard” — too emotional, too direct for her aesthetic.
“He ‘Digesteth Harde Yron’” — on the ostrich, a characteristic Moore animal poem that uses the bird’s biology as a springboard for meditation on strength, endurance, and the willingness to be considered absurd.
“The Paper Nautilus” — on the female nautilus who builds a shell for her eggs, a poem about maternal devotion that avoids sentimentality through sheer precision of observation.
“Rigorists” — on reindeer and the people who depend on them, extending Moore’s characteristic method: natural history as moral instruction.
Context
Moore had published no collection between 1924 and 1935 (Selected Poems), and Selected Poems was largely revision of earlier work. What Are Years represents genuinely new poetry written in the late 1930s and early 1940s — a period when Moore’s life was outwardly quiet (she lived with her mother in Brooklyn, edited The Dial, wrote slowly) but inwardly intense.
The war forced Moore toward directness. Her earlier method — indirection, quotation, oblique approach — served well for animal poems and aesthetic meditations. But war demanded engagement, and What Are Years shows Moore developing a more direct moral voice without abandoning her formal principles.
Collecting What Are Years
First edition (Macmillan, New York, 1941): Brown cloth binding with gold lettering. Dust jacket.
Identification points:
- Macmillan imprint
- “First Printing” stated
- 48 pages (a slim volume)
Market values: Fine copies in dust jacket bring $300–$700. Wartime paper quality and the book’s slimness make truly fine copies uncommon.
Signed copies: $800–$1,500.
The collection’s wartime context and the power of its title poem give it emotional resonance beyond its formal achievements — it is the Moore volume that most readers respond to on first encounter.