Before Sleep

Ezra Pound 1885 (Hailey) – 1972 (Venice)



The lateral vibrations caress me,
They leap and caress me,
They work pathetically in my favour,
They seek my financial good.

She of the spear stands present.
The gods of the underworld attend me, O Annubis,
These are they of thy company.
With a pathetic solicitude they attend me;
Undulant,
Their realm is the lateral courses.

Light!
I am up to follow thee, Pallas.
Up and out of their caresses.
You were gone up as a rocket,
Bending your passages from right to left and from left to right
In the flat projection of a spiral.
The gods of drugged sleep attend me,
Wishing me well;
I am up to follow thee, Pallas.

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 20, 2023

34 sec read
285

Quick analysis:

Scheme aaxb xcaabc dCcxdxaxC
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 619
Words 115
Stanzas 3
Stanza Lengths 4, 6, 9

Ezra Pound

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

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