Sestina: Altaforte poem – Ezra Pound poems
LOQUITUR: En Bertans de Born. Dante Alighieri put this man in hell for that he was a stirrer up of strife. Eccovi! Judge ye! Have I dug him up again? The scene is at his castle, Altaforte. “Papiols” is his jongleur. “The Leopard,” the device of Richard Coeur de Lion. I Damn it all! […]
Salutation poem – Ezra Pound poems
O generation of the thoroughly smug and thoroughly uncomfortable, I have seen fishermen picnicking in the sun, I have seen them with untidy families, I have seen their smiles full of teeth and heard ungainly laughter. And I am happier than you are, And they were happier than I am; And the fish swim […]
Quies poem – Ezra Pound poems
This is another of our ancient loves. Pass and be silent, Rullus, for the day Hath lacked a something since this lady passed; Hath lacked a something. ‘Twas but marginal. *** Ezra Pound Poems by Ezra Pound
Portrait d’Une Femme poem – Ezra Pound poems
Your mind and you are our Sargasso Sea, London has swept about you this score years And bright ships left you this or that in fee: Ideas, old gossip, oddments of all things, Strange spars of knowledge and dimmed wares of price. Great minds have sought you- lacking someone else. You have been second […]
In Tempore Senectutis poem – Ezra Pound poems
When I am old I will not have you look apart From me, into the cold, Friend of my heart, Nor be sad in your remembrance Of the careless, mad-heart semblance That the wind hath blown away When I am old. When I am old And the white hot wonder-fire Unto the world seem […]
Invern poem – Ezra Pound poems
Earth’s winter cometh And I being part of all And sith the spirit of all moveth in me I must needs bear earth’s winter Drawn cold and grey with hours And joying in a momentary sun, Lo I am withered with waiting till my spring cometh! Or crouch covetous of warmth O’er scant-logged ingle […]
Ione, Dead the Long Year poem – Ezra Pound poems
Empty are the ways, Empty are the ways of this land And the flowers Bend over with heavy heads. They bend in vain. Empty are the ways of this land Where Ione Walked once, and now does not walk But seems like a person just gone. *** […]
The Jewel Stairs’ Grievance poem – Ezra Pound poems
The jewelled steps are already quite white with dew, It is so late that the dew soaks my gauze stockings, And I let down the crystal curtain And watch the moon through the clear autumn. *** Ezra Pound Poems by Ezra Pound […]
Envoi poem – Ezra Pound poems
Go, dumb-born book, Tell her that sang me once that song of Lawes: Hadst thou but song As thou hast subjects known, Then were there cause in thee that should condone Even my faults that heavy upon me lie And build her glories their longevity. Tell her that sheds Such treasure in the air, […]
Further Instructions poem – Ezra Pound poems
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, […]
Epilogue poem – Ezra Pound poems
O chansons foregoing You were a seven days’ wonder. When you came out in the magazines You created considerable stir in Chicago, And now you are stale and worn out, You’re a very depleted fashion, A hoop-skirt, a calash, An homely, transient antiquity. Only emotion remains. Your emotions? Are those of a maitre-de-cafe. […]
Ezra on the Strike poem – Ezra Pound poems
Wal, Thanksgivin’ do be comin’ round. With the price of turkeys on the bound, And coal, by gum! Thet were just found, Is surely gettin’ cheaper. The winds will soon begin to howl, And winter, in its yearly growl, Across the medders begin to prowl, And Jack Frost gettin’ deeper. By shucks! It seems […]
Francesca poem – Ezra Pound poems
You came in out of the night And there were flowers in your hand, Now you will come out of a confusion of people, Out of a turmoil of speech about you. I who have seen you amid the primal things Was angry when they spoke your name IN ordinary places. I would that […]
Grace Before Song poem – Ezra Pound poems
Lord God of heaven that with mercy dight Th’alternate prayer wheel of the night and light Eternal hath to thee, and in whose sight Our days as rain drops in the sea surge fall, As bright white drops upon a leaden sea Grant so my songs to this grey folk may be: As drops […]
Hugh Selwyn Mauberly (Part I) poem – Ezra Pound poems
“Vocat aestus in umbram” Nemesianus Es. IV. E. P. Ode pour l’élection de son sépulchre 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 sense. Wrong from the start — No, hardly, but, seeing he had been born […]
In the Old Age of the Soul poem – Ezra Pound poems
I do not choose to dream; there cometh on me Some strange old lust for deeds. As to the nerveless hand of some old warrior The sword-hilt or the war-worn wonted helmet Brings momentary life and long-fled cunning, So to my soul grown old; Grown old with many a jousting, many a foray, Grown […]
And the days are not full enough poem – Ezra Pound poems
And the days are not full enough And the nights are not full enough And life slips by like a field mouse Not shaking the grass *** Ezra Pound Poems by Ezra Pound
Canto XIII poem – Ezra Pound poems
Kung walked by the dynastic temple and into the cedar grove, and then out by the lower river, And with him Khieu Tchi and Tian the low speaking And “we are unknown,” said Kung, “You will take up charioteering? “Then you will become known, “Or perhaps I should take up charioterring, or archery? “Or […]
Canto XLIX poem – Ezra Pound poems
For the seven lakes, and by no man these verses: Rain; empty river; a voyage, Fire from frozen cloud, heavy rain in the twilight Under the cabin roof was one lantern. The reeds are heavy; bent; and the bamboos speak as if weeping. Autumn moon; hills rise about lakes against sunset Evening is like […]
Alba poem – Ezra Pound poems
As cool as the pale wet leaves of lily-of-the-valley She lay beside me in the dawn. *** Ezra Pound Poems by Ezra Pound
Ballad of the Goodly Fere poem – Ezra Pound poems
Simon Zelotes speaking after the Crucifixion. Fere=Mate, Companion. Ha’ we lost the goodliest fere o’ all For the priests and the gallows tree? Aye lover he was of brawny men, O’ ships and the open sea. When they came wi’ a host to take Our Man His smile was good to see, “First let […]
E.P. Ode Pour L’election De Son Sepulchre poem – Ezra Pound poems
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 sense. 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; […]
Ancient Music poem – Ezra Pound poems
Winter is icummen in, Lhude sing Goddamm. Raineth drop and staineth slop, And how the wind doth ramm! Sing: Goddamm. Skiddeth bus and sloppeth us, An ague hath my ham. Freezeth river, turneth liver, Damn you, sing: Goddamm. Goddamm, Goddamm, ’tis why I am, Goddamm, So ‘gainst the winter’s balm. Sing goddamm, damm, sing […]
Cino poem – Ezra Pound poems
Italian Campagna 1309, the open road Bah! I have sung women in three cities, But it is all the same; And I will sing of the sun. Lips, words, and you snare them, Dreams, words, and they are as jewels, Strange spells of old deity, Ravens, nights, allurement: And they are not; Having become […]
A Pact poem – Ezra Pound poems
I make a pact with you, Walt Whitman– I have detested you long enough. I come to you as a grown child Who has had a pig-headed father; I am old enough now to make friends. It was you that broke the new wood, Now is a time for carving. We have one sap […]
Before Sleep poem – Ezra Pound poems
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 […]
An Immorality poem – Ezra Pound poems
Sing we for love and idleness, Naught else is worth the having. Though I have been in many a land, There is naught else in living. And I would rather have my sweet, Though rose-leaves die of grieving, Than do high deeds in Hungary To pass all men’s believing. […]
In A Station Of The Metro poem – Ezra Pound poems
The apparition of these faces in the crowd; Petals on a wet, black bough. *** Ezra Pound Poems by Ezra Pound
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The tree has entered my hands, The sap has ascended my arms, The tree has grown in my breast- Downward, The branches grow out of me, like arms. Tree you are, Moss you are, You are violets with wind above them. A child – so high – you are, And all this is folly […]
Notes for Canto CXX poem – Ezra Pound poems
I have tried to write Paradise Do not move Let the wind speak that is paradise. Let the Gods forgive what I have made Let those I love try to forgive what I have made. *** Ezra Pound Poems by Ezra Pound […]
Nicotine poem – Ezra Pound poems
Hymn to the Dope Goddess of the murmuring courts, Nicotine, my Nicotine, Houri of the mystic sports, trailing-robed in gabardine, Gliding where the breath hath glided, Hidden sylph of filmy veils, Truth behind the dream is veiléd E’en as thou art, smiling ever, ever gliding, Wraith of wraiths, dim lights dividing Purple, grey, and […]
Meditatio poem – Ezra Pound poems
When I carefully consider the curious habits of dogs I am compelled to conclude That man is the superior animal. When I consider the curious habits of man I confess, my friend, I am puzzled. *** Ezra Pound Poems by Ezra Pound […]
Medallion poem – Ezra Pound poems
Luini in porcelain! The grand piano Utters a profane Protest with her clear soprano. The sleek head emerges From the gold-yellow frock As Anadyomene in the opening Pages of Reinach. Honey-red, closing the face-oval, A basket-work of braids which seem as if they were Spun in King Minos’ hall From metal, or intractable amber; […]
Masks poem – Ezra Pound poems
These tales of old disguisings, are they not Strange myths of souls that found themselves among Unwonted folk that spake an hostile tongue, Some soul from all the rest who’d not forgot The star-span acres of a former lot Where boundless mid the clouds his course he swung, Or carnate with his elder brothers […]
L’Art poem – Ezra Pound poems
Green arsenic smeared on an egg-white cloth, Crushed strawberries! Come, let us feast our eyes. *** Ezra Pound Poems by Ezra Pound
Lament of the Frontier Guard poem – Ezra Pound poems
By the North Gate, the wind blows full of sand, Lonely from the beginning of time until now! Trees fall, the grass goes yellow with autumn. I climb the towers and towers to watch out the barbarous land: Desolate castle, the sky, the wide desert. There is no wall left to this village. Bones […]
La Regina Avrillouse poem – Ezra Pound poems
Lady of rich allure, Queen of the spring’s embrace, Your arms are long like boughs of ash, Mid laugh-broken streams, spirit of rain unsure, Breath of the poppy flower, All the wood thy bower And the hills thy dwelling-place. This will I no more dream; Warm is thy arm’s allure, Warm is the gust […]
Ione, Dead the Long Year poem – Ezra Pound poems
Empty are the ways, Empty are the ways of this land And the flowers Bend over with heavy heads. They bend in vain. Empty are the ways of this land Where Ione Walked once, and now does not walk But seems like a person just gone. *** […]
Invern poem – Ezra Pound poems
Earth’s winter cometh And I being part of all And sith the spirit of all moveth in me I must needs bear earth’s winter Drawn cold and grey with hours And joying in a momentary sun, Lo I am withered with waiting till my spring cometh! Or crouch covetous of warmth O’er scant-logged ingle […]
In the Old Age of the Soul poem – Ezra Pound poems
I do not choose to dream; there cometh on me Some strange old lust for deeds. As to the nerveless hand of some old warrior The sword-hilt or the war-worn wonted helmet Brings momentary life and long-fled cunning, So to my soul grown old; Grown old with many a jousting, many a foray, Grown […]