In honor of Jarrell’s intense regard for Miss Marianne Moore, here is the ending of her poem”The Pangolin” (which begins, so wonderfully, “Another armored animal…”) -
Not afraid of anything is he,
and then goes cowering forth, tread paced to meet an obstacle
at every step. Consistent with the
formula – warm blood, no gills, two pairs of hands and a few
hairs – that
.
is a mammal; there he sits in his own habitat,
serge-clad, strong-shod. The prey of fear, he always
curtailed, extinguished, thwarted by the dusk, work
partly done,
.
says to the alternating blaze,
“Again the sun!
anew each day; and new and new and new,
that comes into and steadies my soul. (116)
.
In case you’ve never seen a pangolin, here’s a photo of a baby one. “Another armored animal…”
**NOTE: Ben thinks this baby pangolin is ugly and slug-like. I disagree.**
Moore, Mariaane. Complete Poems. NY: Penguin, 1994.
