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About this quote

What does it mean?
The poet expresses a wish to be a dragon, a powerful symbol that can be small or invisible.
In plain terms
The author wants to be like a dragon: powerful, sometimes small, sometimes invisible.
What can you take from it?
Power can be vast or hidden.

Where it applies

  • creative writing
  • imagining strength
  • symbolic thinking

Putting it to work

  • embrace versatility
  • value invisibility

Questions to consider

  • What would it mean to be a dragon?
  • Is hidden power better?

Another view

Dragons are mythical and cannot be emulated literally.

More from Marianne Moore

  1. War is pillage versus resistance and if illusions of magnitude could be transmuted into ideals of magnanimity, peace might be realized.

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  2. A writer is unfair to himself when he is unable to be hard on himself.

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  3. You are not male nor female, but a plan deep-set within the heart of man.

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