Analysis of Alf’s Sixth Bit

Ezra Pound 1885 (Hailey) – 1972 (Venice)



Let some new lying ass,
Who knows not what is or was,
Talk economics,
Pay for his witless noise,
Get the kid nice new toys,
Call him 'professor'.

Lies from the specialist
Give t'old ones a newer twist
Harder to untie.
Here comes the hired gang
Blood on each tired fang
Covered with lip-stick.

'Oh, what a charming man,'
That's how the press blurb ran,
'Professor K s is.'
Now they can't fire him.
NO! they won't hire him.
Still Dr. S 's
Not tied to the ring around,
Not quite snowed under.

Being a physicist
They can't quite bribe him:
Oh, what a noise they made
Those parliamentarians.

Oh what a fuss they made
Stirring the marmalade
These parliamentarians
Never an honest word
In their dim halls was heard
For more than a decade.


Scheme XXXAAB XCXDDX EEXFFXXB CFGH GGHIIG
Poetic Form Etheree  (30%)
Tetractys  (20%)
Metre 111101 1111111 1010 111101 101111 11010 110100 11110101 10101 110101 111101 10111 110101 110111 010111 111101 111101 1111 1110101 11110 100100 11111 110111 100100 110111 10010 100100 101101 011111 111001
Closest metre Iambic trimeter
Characters 710
Words 139
Sentences 12
Stanzas 5
Stanza Lengths 6, 6, 8, 4, 6
Lines Amount 30
Letters per line (avg) 19
Words per line (avg) 5
Letters per stanza (avg) 112
Words per stanza (avg) 27
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

42 sec read
80

Ezra Pound

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

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