Analysis of Marianne Moore's Poem, A Carriage from Sweden

Marianne Moore's "A Carriage from Sweden" depicts the appraisal and appreciation of a carriage and by extension, the nation of its origin and the people who reside there. The carriage itself is in a museum, as noted in the second stanza, second line. Its presence, however, conjures up comparative images between Sweden (or Scandinavia in general, as Hamlet's castle is in Denmark) and the United States, a comparison the author devotes the first three stanzas to. In these stanzas, she says little about the carriage itself, except that it is a "country cart" and it is a "vein of resined straightness." Instead, she compares lavishly compares the air and atmosphere of Hamlet's castle and Brooklyn, both of which makes her feel at home. She also makes a comparison between Washington and Gustavus Adolphus, both brilliant on the field of battle as well as in politics in their respective nations of origin. The character both nations have taken upon as tough negotiators that does not compromise is another point mentioned here, in the third stanza. The author, however, in the second and third stanzas, also mention a distinct decline and failing of what the author thinks that both of the men would've envisioned in their nations. The phrases "city of freckled integrity" in the second stanza, "once-opposed-to-compromise" in the third, and "forgive our decay" to end the third stanza all show a sort of apologetic discontent from the author at the state of the countries as she's writing the poem.

She spends the fourth stanza describing the carriage in detail, with no small amount of flowery adjectives relating to nature. The construct that is the carriage is adorned with features plucked from nature resembling "gourd-rinds," "flower[s]," and "swirling crustacean-tailed equine amphibious creatures." The last entry, with no commas separating the adjectives, suggests that all of the aforementioned qualities are rolled into one continuous creature, undoubtedly mythical and perhaps unidentifiable as a whole save for the individual features alone that "garnish the axel-tree."

She segues into the fifth stanza with "What a fine thing! What unannoying romance!" These are the most direct statements she makes regarding the carriage, and involves no comparisons as she had done earlier in the poem. In the next line, although she makes a comparison to the "natural stoop of the snowy egret," harking back to nature, there is a feeling that "grey-eyed and straight-haired" can also be human qualities, perhaps describing "of whom it reminds me" that starts the sixth stanza. The sixth stanza continues this somewhat ambiguous trend of using descriptors that can both describe a person or an object in nature. The "split pine fair hair" refers to hair, as compared to the split pine, and not the other way around. The same can be said for "steady gannet-clear eyes and the pine-needled path deer-swift step." She's now describing a Swede, who embodies the nature that one would find in Sweden.

She ends the sixth stanza and starts the next stanza with the description of a spruce tree, young but straight and green. Her next two phrases are mere fragments, perhaps a glimpse of Sweden in "the deft white-stockinged dance in thick-soled shoes" and "Denmark's sanctuaried Jews" might be a reference to the neutrality of Sweden during WWII. The eighth stanza also features a series of images with a myriad of compound adjectives that quickens the pace. The images she present ranges from the mundane puzzle-jug to the mythical "kracken" [sic]. The end of the stanza and the ninth stanza that follows moves to more whimsical descriptions of things without even mentioning exactly what object she's referring to, only parts for the reader to guess. The "gable-ends due east and west" describe houses, probably facing south for the sun, if the corners of the house held by gables are due east and west. The table spread reminds one distinctly of the traditional Nordic smörgåsbord, literally a "sandwich table". The nation's nautical tradition is referenced in the style of dress, especially in the vests, in the next line.

She moves to pose questions about the origins of the desirability of the nation. The author asks a few rhetorical questions about why the nation appears to be so desirable. Her example of the light-house almost has an automated utopian feel to it - responsive and responsible. She finally concludes that it is not because of the beauty of the Swedish nature that makes the nation so desirable, but the achievements of the Swedish people. The castles, the planted flowerbeds, and the skillfully made carts are what made Sweden so attractive to her.

The poem became a tour of Sweden with the author, and the reader can see the progression of the author's admiration change from the natural aspects of the country to the people and what they have built, finally arriving back at the cart which she admires in the museum in presumably the United States. The fauna and flora of Sweden are her main focus in the first half of the poem, especially the trees, the birds, and the deer. However, she also personifies them to show a parallel in their characteristics with the Swedish people and the nation as a whole, especially in the sixth stanza. Another recurring theme is the sea, starting from the description of the carriage itself, containing the crustacean-tailed equine amphibious creature, moving through the mythical kracken [sic] that supposedly lived in the North Sea, to the fish-fin effect of the vests of the Swedes, and ending up with the dolphin-graceful cart and the lighthouse. The random associations she makes in the poem, jumping from one object to another, may seem like a random chain of vaguely interconnected things, all with the commonality of being Swedish, but there is a distinct progression in the poem that we've seen in her other poems such as "The Mind is an Enchanted Thing". The progression is like a magician leading the crowd around the room, misdirecting them until the very end, when the prestige of the act is revealed, and one might notice that the real secret is obvious in hindsight. This poem follows in a circular motion, with the focus changing from the cart to Sweden the country and finally, the Swedish people, before coming around to reveal that what was really being admired by the author at the beginning of the poem was the workmanship of the Swedish people, the cart, after all, even though the cart gets virtually no mentions in the middle of the poem.

In the early part of the poem, the author shows a level of disdain for what the city has become, especially the phrase "freckled integrity." The phrase "[w]hat unannoying romance" reminds one of a simpler kind of romance, perhaps a purer kind, reflected by the simple origins of the country cart. The country cart, despite its decorations, is probably not an object made for the city. The images of the country on the cart lead - or perhaps mislead - the author to imagine Sweden as a rural, simple paradise. She hangs onto this notion through the entire poem, but it progresses. Each stanza seems to move from a more rural, natural influence to a more human one. The author moves from the shape of the carriage, which reminded her of a snowy egret's stoop, to the person whom it was made for. She moves from a seedling's trunk to the thick soles of dancing shoes. She moves from rural to urban, hand-sprung rugs to Sunday jackets. Finally, from the deer to the gables of a building, a banquet table, and the vest-pleats, she moves back into the man-made, constructed reality that she at first considered freckled. At this point, when the moated white castles and the flowerbeds come into view, she realizes, as she realized at the start, that it is not Sweden's unadorned, simplistic nature that makes it so appealing, as compared to Brooklyn. In fact, the familiarity arises from the similar nature of the two nations, in the man-made things. It is how the Swedes have made such man-made things, from the cart to the castle that sets it apart and so attractive; "responsive and responsible," as she put it. The Swedish quality and workmanship in everything - from cart building to castle building - sets it apart from the familiar air of American things and to the author, this is what sets the otherwise familiar constructed things apart and the Swedish cart so appealing.