Dock Rats
There are human beings who seem to regard the place as craftily
as we do—who seem to feel that it is a good place to come
home to. On what a river; wide—twinkling like a chopped sea under some
of the finest shipping in the
world: the square-rigged four-master, the liner, the battleship, like the two-
thirds submerged section of an iceberg; the tug—strong moving thing,
dipping and pushing, the bell striking as it comes; the steam yacht, lying
like a new made arrow on the
stream; the ferry-boat—a head assigned, one to each compartment, making
a row of chessmen set for play. When the wind is from the east,
the smell is of apples; of hay, the aroma increased and decreased
suddenly as the wind changes;
of rope; of mountain leaves for florists. When it is from the west, it is
an elixir. There is occasionally a parrakeet
arrived from Brazil, clasping and clawing; or a monkey—tail and feet
in readiness for an over-
ture. All palms and tail; how delightful! There is the sea, moving the bulk-
head with its horse strength; and the multiplicity of rudders
and propellers; the signals, shrill, questioning, peremptory, diverse;
the wharf cats and the barge dogs—it
is easy to overestimate the value of such things. One does
not live in such a place from motives of expediency
but because to one who has been accustomed to it, shipping is the
most congenial thing in the world.
This poem is in the public domain. Published in Poem-a-Day on November 10, 2025, by the Academy of American Poets.
“Dock Rats” by Marianne Moore appeared in Poems (Egoist Press, 1921) when fellow poet H.D. collected and published a selection of Moore’s previously published work without her knowledge. Of the poem, Cristanne Miller, a SUNY distinguished professor and Edward H. Butler Professor of Literature, wrote in her article “Marianne Moore and the Women Modernizing New York” published in Modern Philology, Vol. 98, No. 2 (November 2000), “In 1919, Moore published her first poem explicitly about living in the city: ‘Dock Rats.’ Shipping seems mundane as the key attraction of New York City, but in the poem shipping signifies ‘experience’: together the sea and shipping represent change, activity, commerce, natural beauties, exoticism, and a rich diversity of sights, smells, and sounds.” Miller continues, “The poem’s rat speakers acknowledge that ‘there are human beings who seem to regard the place as craftily / as we do—who seem to feel that it is a good place to come / home to’ and then drop the comparison for the pure sensual pleasure of watching, hearing, and smelling the wharf and sea as the desired occupation of a lifetime: possibilities for intensely engaged observation, rather than a particular domicile, constitute ‘home.’”