Analysis of Further Instructions

Ezra Pound 1885 (Hailey) – 1972 (Venice)



Come, my songs, let us express our baser passions.
Let us express our envy for the man with a steady job and no worry about the future.
You are very idle, my songs,
I fear you will come to a bad end.
You stand about the streets, You loiter at the corners and bus-stops,
You do next to nothing at all.

You do not even express our inner nobilitys,
You will come to a very bad end.

And I? I have gone half-cracked.
I have talked to you so much that I almost see you about me,
Insolent little beasts! Shameless! Devoid of clothing!

But you, newest song of the lot,
You are not old enough to have done much mischief.
I will get you a green coat out of China
With dragons worked upon it.
I will get you the scarlet silk trousers
From the statue of the infant Christ at Santa Maria Novella;
Lest they say we are lacking in taste,
Or that there is no caste in this family.


Scheme AXXBXX AB XCX XXDXXDXC
Poetic Form
Metre 1111101101010 1101101010110101011001010 11101011 111111011 1101011101010011 11111011 111100110101 111101011 0111111 111111111111011 1001011001110 11101101 111101111110 11110111110 1101011 1111010110 10110101110010010 111111001 11111101100
Closest metre Iambic hexameter
Characters 866
Words 174
Sentences 14
Stanzas 4
Stanza Lengths 6, 2, 3, 8
Lines Amount 19
Letters per line (avg) 35
Words per line (avg) 9
Letters per stanza (avg) 167
Words per stanza (avg) 43
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on April 30, 2023

52 sec read
179

Ezra Pound

Ezra Weston Loomis Pound was an American expatriate poet and critic of the early modernist movement. more…

All Ezra Pound poems | Ezra Pound Books

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