Not brittle but / Intense - the spectrum, that

Spectacular and nimble the animal the fish,

Whose scales turn aside the sun's sword with their polish.

Marianne Moore, "An Egyptian Pulled Glass Bottle in the Shape of a Fish"

Is it Nineveh

and are you Jonah

    in the sweltering east wind of your wishes?

        I myself, have stood

            there by the aquarium, looking

                at the Statue of Liberty.

Marianne Moore, "Is Your Town Ninevah?"