O to Be a Dragon explained

O to Be a Dragon is a 1959 poetry collection by the American poet Marianne Moore, and the title of the collection's eponymous poem. It was published by Viking Press in New York City.^[1]

It was not initially published by Faber and Faber in England as Faber's editor TS Eliot considered it too short, but it was later combined with four extra poems and a collection that had not previously appeared in the United Kingdom, and issued as The Arctic fox in 1964.^[2]

TIME magazine's review of O to Be a Dragon included directions to Moore's apartment which led to her being in her own words "obliterated by trespassers..I might say thugs! Letters upon letters also."^[3]

Poems

• "O to Be a Dragon"
• "I May, I Might, I Must"
• "To a Chameleon"
• "A Jelly-Fish"
• "Values in Use"
• "Hometown Piece for Messrs. Alton and Reese"
• "Enough: Jamestown, 1607-1957"
• "Melchior Vulpis"
• "No Better Than a "Withered Daffodil""
• "In the Public Garden"
• "The Arctic Ox (or Goat)"
• "Saint Nicholas"
• "For February 14th"
• "Combat Cultural"
• "Leonardo da Vinci's"

Notes and References

1. Book: Lawrence Rainey. Modernism: An Anthology. 15 July 2005. John Wiley & Sons. 978-0-631-20448-0. 1160.
2. Book: Darlene Williams Erickson. Illusion and More Precise Then Precision: The Poetry of Marianne Moore. 1992. University of Alabama Press. 978-0-8173-0570-3. 240.
3. Book: Linda Leavell. Holding On Upside Down: The Life and Work of Marianne Moore. 5 November 2013. Faber & Faber. 978-0-571-30183-6. 363.