Analysis of Marianne Moore's poem 'Silence'

Silence

My father used to say,
"Superior people never make long visits,
have to be shown Longfellow's grave
nor the glass flowers at Harvard.
Self reliant like the cat --
that takes its prey to privacy,
the mouse's limp tail hanging like a shoelace from its mouth --
they sometimes enjoy solitude,
and can be robbed of speech
by speech which has delighted them.
The deepest feeling always shows itself in silence;
not in silence, but restraint."
Nor was he insincere in saying, "`Make my house your inn'."
Inns are not residences.

-          Marianne Moore

The poem is interesting because even though we get what the father is saying in direct speech it seems more like the poet’s mockery of her father’s notion that intellect can develop only in solitude, by shutting oneself from society and its affairs. The poem is also about the suppression of expression.

‘Superior people never make long visits,

Have to be shown Longfellow’s grave

Nor the glass flowers at Harvard. ’

He is emphatically telling the poet that superior people will ‘never’ waste time ‘making long visits’ or join institutions (platforms for socialization and learning) because what is taught there is not worthwhile. ‘Longfellow’s grave’ means that the knowledge imparted there is obsolete; it can also mean the burial of poetry i.e. expression. The ‘glass flowers’ imply that all that erudition does not serve any practical purposes except to show off; they might also refer to poetry/art as mere aesthetic trifle having no practical value.

He says Superior people are self- reliant like cats. This particular comparison especially seems like a mockery of his idea about the self-reliance of the so called superior people. They are intellectual recluses who ‘prey’ upon knowledge in their private, comfort zones without sharing their ideas and being exposed to those of others- like how ‘the cat takes its prey to privacy’.

‘They sometimes enjoy solitude’- which means they do not really enjoy their solitude always but do enjoy once in a long while. But even then they are simply savouring what others have written and said without putting in their own thinking. They get so influenced by the thoughts of others that they completely forget that they have a mind of their own- they are ‘robbed of speech/by speech which has delighted them.’

As I said before the poem is also about the suppression of expression. It can also be read as a feminist text which is about an authoritative father dictating his daughter. The father says:

‘The deepest feeling always shows itself in silence;

not in silence, but restraint.’

Here silence refers to one’s preference- not to expresses what one feels. Restraint refers to one’s forceful suppression of the urge to express. In a way he is telling her that she would better not speak even if she wants to, that he knows what she needs. He finally says ‘make my house your inn.’ He asserts that it is his house and her inn. She is like a guest who will be provided for but who will not have a say. This is the reason why he also discourages her from socializing which might trigger individual thinking, feeling, learning and thereby lead to liberation.