Man's Feet Are a Sensational Device

Rest assured that netting butterflies,
     Flying from mice,
          And crushing spiders,
               Is portentous cowardice.
The field of moral choice affords man’s
     Feet crackling ice
          To tread, and feet are
               A sensational device.

Marianne Moore was an American poet and essayist who received the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Award, and the National Medal for Literature.
Originally published:
October 1, 2003

Featured

Reading the Declaration of Independence as Holy Text

How the American creed emerged—and evolved—over 250 years

Writing

Unpublished journal entries

Searching for Seamus Heaney

What I found when I resolved to read him

Support Our Commitment to Print

Subscribe to The Yale Review. Receive four print issues a year—essays, fiction, poetry, and criticism.
Subscribe