The Steeple-Jack Essay Questions

Why does Moore evoke Dürer?

Dürer is an excellent choice to convey the sort of town Moore is mentioning. He hailed from the Germanic region of Nuremberg, known for its picturesque towns. He distinguished himself as a printmaker and painter of immense precision, clarity, and technical achievement. He was the first Northern European artist to experiment with perspective, and engaged with color and line in unprecedented ways. As the Artsy entry for the artist explains, "Dürer’s woodcuts and engravings demonstrated unprecedented technical skill, tonal variation, and compositional sophistication. Dürer theorized extensively on linear perspective and anatomical proportion..." If Dürer would have appreciated the town, Moore invites us to take a similarly exacting perspective on it.

What do the men mentioned in the poem have in common, and how are they different?

On the surface it seems as if the three men have little in common with each other, let alone with the town itself. Dürer lived in a different time and place; Ambrose is not from there; the steeple-jack is fantastical and perhaps even sinister. However, all three occupy a position of viewing far above that of the town, for Dürer is not truly there, Ambrose sits on a hill, and the steeple-jack climbs high atop the spire. They all have a rarefied view of the town and love it for something it truly isn't. They admire the elegance—the "sweet sea air" and the beached whales, the "sugar-bowl shaped summerhouse of / interlacing slats," the gilded star that "stands for hope." They are removed from the literal and the coarse; they appreciate the town as readers appreciate Moore's poetry. Critic Beverly Coyle writes, "Something above the small-town mentality is more important and vital to the speaker—and to Ambrose, Dürer, and the steeplejack—elegance. Elegance is a key word and underlying theme of the poem."