Analysis of Impressions Of Francois-Marie Arouet (De Voltaire)
Ezra Pound 1885 (Hailey) – 1972 (Venice)
I
Phyllidula and the Spoils of Gouvernet
Where, Lady, are the days
When you could go out in a hired hansom
Without footmen and equipments?
And dine in a soggy, cheap restaurant?
Phyllidula now, with your powdered Swiss footman
Clanking the door shut,
and lying;
And carpets from Savonnier, and from Persia,
And your new service at dinner,
And plates from Germain,
And cabinets and chests from Martin (almost lacquer),
And your white vases from Japan,
And the lustre of diamonds,
Etcetera, etcetera, and etcetera?
II
To Madame du Châtelet
If you'd have me go on loving you
Give me back the time of the thing.
Will you give me dawn light at evening?
Time has driven me out from the fine plaisaunces,
The parks with the swards all over dew,
And grass going glassy with the light on it,
The green stretches where love is and the grapes
Hang in yellow-white and dark clusters ready for pressing.
And if now we can't fit with our time of life
There is not much but its evil left us.
Life gives us two minutes, two seasons
One to be dull in;
Two deaths and to stop loving and being lovable,
That is the real death,
The other is little beside it.
Crying after the follies gone by me,
Quiet talking is all that is left us
Gentle talking, not like the first talking, less lively;
And to follow after friendship, as they call it,
Weeping that we can follow naught else.
III
To Madame Lullin
You'll wonder that an old man of eighty
Can go on writing you verses. . . .
Grass showing under the snow,
Birds singing late in the year!
And Tibullus could say of his death, in his Latin:
'Delia, I would look on you, dying.'
And Delia herself fading out,
Forgetting even her beauty.
Scheme | AB CXXBDBEFGXGXXF AB XE EC BBXEXH XXXXB IHIBX AD BX XX DE BB |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1 100111 110101 11111001010 0110010 010010110 111110110 10011 010 010110110 01110110 01101 010001110110 01110101 0010110 1100110001100 1 110111 111111101 11101101 111111110 1110111011 011011101 01101010111 0110111001 10101011010110 011111110111 1111111011 111110110 11110 1101110010100 11011 010110011 1010010111 1010111111 1010110110110 011010101111 101111011 1 1101 1101111110 11110110 1101001 1101001 01111110110 101111110 01001101 01010010 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,625 |
Words | 308 |
Sentences | 17 |
Stanzas | 13 |
Stanza Lengths | 2, 14, 2, 2, 2, 6, 5, 5, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2 |
Lines Amount | 48 |
Letters per line (avg) | 27 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 100 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 24 |
Font size:
Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:33 min read
- 84 Views
Citation
Use the citation below to add this poem analysis to your bibliography:
Style:MLAChicagoAPA
"Impressions Of Francois-Marie Arouet (De Voltaire)" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 29 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/13271/impressions-of-francois-marie-arouet-%28de-voltaire%29>.
Discuss this Ezra Pound poem analysis with the community:
Report Comment
We're doing our best to make sure our content is useful, accurate and safe.
If by any chance you spot an inappropriate comment while navigating through our website please use this form to let us know, and we'll take care of it shortly.
Attachment
You need to be logged in to favorite.
Log In