Analysis of 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In a half-savage country, out of date;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.


Scheme ABAB CDCD EEXE XXEX XAXX
Poetic Form Quatrain  (60%)
Tetractys  (20%)
Etheree  (20%)
Metre 111111111 111010011 1100101001 0011101 1101101111 0011010111 1100110101010 1110101 1111111 10011 1001111 01111111 110100110 1111001 010100111 101011110 010101101 11111000111 1110110 11101010
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 747
Words 134
Sentences 5
Stanzas 5
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 4, 4, 4
Lines Amount 20
Letters per line (avg) 30
Words per line (avg) 7
Letters per stanza (avg) 119
Words per stanza (avg) 26
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

40 sec read
76

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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