Unlike some of the more famous poets whose works have been featured in these pages, Merrill Moore did not write several "great" poems. But he did write a great many good poems, really good poems, fun poems, emotional poems, charming poems, interesting poems, unusual poems, imaginative poems. In fact, it is really not fair to offer just two of Moore's poems, as I am doing here. His range of subjects and emotions and periods and settings and styles is so striking that to really appreciate his work nothing short of a dozen or so would provide adequate exposure. It is worth noting that this would not be all that difficult, given that Moore is said to have written no less than four thousand sonnets by the age of 25.

Moore is not widely known today, although he was a charter member of a group of poets who gathered at Vanderbilt University shortly after World War I and published a monthly journal called The Fugitive, which can accurately be described as famous in poetry circles even today. Besides Moore, this group included such literary greats as Robert Penn Warren, John Crowe Ransom, Allen Tate, Robert Graves, Hart Crane, and Donald Davidson, whose poem Sanctuary was featured in these pages just over a year ago.

But unlike many members of the Fugitive group, Moore did not pursue a serious literary career after leaving Vanderbilt. He received a medical degree and went on to teach at Harvard College. Later he became a Graduate Assistant in the Psychiatric Clinic at Massachusetts General. He did, however, publish many books of poetry during his life. He specialized in sonnets, but he routinely deviated from the strict sonnet form.

I hope you enjoy these two very different poems. Someday, God willing, I will return to Moore's work again in these pages, presenting at least a couple more of his verses, which, you can be assured, will be different from these.