from "Hugh Selwyn Mauberly"

Ezra Pound 1885 (Hailey) – 1972 (Venice)



For three years, out of key with his time,
He strove to resuscitate the dead art
Of poetry; to maintain "the sublime"
In the old scene.Wrong from the start--

No, hardly, but seeing he had been born
In a half-savage country, out of date;
Bent resolutely on wringing lilies from the acorn;
Capaneus; trout for factitious bait;

[idmen gar toi pant, hos eni Troiei]
Caught in the unstopped ear;
Giving the rocks small lee-way
The chopped seas held him, therefore, that year.

His true Penelope was Flaubert,
He fished by obstinate isles;
Observed the elegance of Circe's hair
Rather than the mottoes on sun-dials.

Unaffected by "the march of events,"
He passed from men's memory in l'an trentuniesme
De son eage; the case presents
No adjunct to the Muses' diadem.

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

40 sec read
76

Quick analysis:

Scheme ABAB CDCD EEXE XXEX XAXX
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 747
Words 134
Stanzas 5
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 4, 4, 4

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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