Select the correct answer. Here is an excerpt from Marianne Moore's "Poetry" in which Moore expresses her dislike for poorly written poems. What does Moore mean when she says "imaginary gardens with real toads in them" in this excerpt? …same thing may be said for all of us—that we
do not admire what
we cannot understand. The bat,
holding on upside down or in quest of something to
eat, elephants pushing, a wild horse taking a roll … all these phenomena are important. One must make a distinction
however: when dragged into prominence by half poets,
the result is not poetry,
nor till the autocrats among us can be
“literalists of
the imagination”—above
insolence and triviality and can present
for inspection, imaginary gardens with real toads in them,
shall we have
it. In the meantime, if you demand on the one hand, in defiance
of their opinion—
the raw material of poetry in
all its rawness, and
that which is on the other hand,
genuine, then you are interested in poetry.
A. Poets use abstract concepts because such ideas can be easily understood and make the poem universal.
B. Poets use abstract concepts, so it is hard to determine the meaning of a poem.
C. Poetry is inconsequential because it combines ideas illogically, such as imaginary gardens with real-life objects placed in them.
D. Poets should write at least one poem that includes a pastoral or romantic scene.
E. Poets must be able to inject real emotion into abstract concepts.