Question

What element of modernist poetry is evident in this excerpt from the poem, "Poetry" by Marianne Moore? 

Hands that can grasp, eyes 

that can dilate, hair that can rise 
if it must, these things are important not because a 
high sounding interpretation can be put upon them but because 
they are 
useful.

Answer 1

I believe because it falls across multiple lines without obvious breaks. The line breaks are important because the first word of each line gets emphasis.

Answer 2

One of the main characteristics of modernist poetry is that it experimented with meter.

Unlike Neoclassicists and Romantics who followed traditional patterns, especially Iambic Pentameter, modernist poets challenged the established rules and played with the division of lines and their meter.

In this excerpt of "Poetry," we can see that Marianne Moore took liberties when it comes to the meter of the poem: it does not follow any established meter, and the lines do not have the same lenght.