Published on Academy of American Poets (https://poets.org)

Ennui

He often expressed
A curious wish,
To be interchangeably
Man and fish;
To nibble the bait
Off the hook,
Said he,
And then slip away
Like a ghost
In the sea.

Credit

This poem appeared in Poem-A-Day on June 9, 2013. Browse the Poem-A-Day archive.

Author

Marianne Moore

Born in 1887, Marianne Moore wrote with the freedom characteristic of the other Modernist poets, often incorporating quotes from other sources into the text, yet her use of language was always extraordinarily condensed and precise

Date Published: 2013-06-09

Source URL: https://poets.org/poem/ennui