Analysis of Fish And Shadow

Ezra Pound 1885 (Hailey) – 1972 (Venice)



The salmon-trout drifts in the stream,
The soul of the salmon-trout floats over the stream
Like a little wafer of light.

The salmon moves in the sun-shot, bright shallow sea. . . .

As light as the shadow of the fish
that falls through the water,
She came into the large room by the stair,
Yawning a little she came with the sleep still upon her.

'I am just from bed. The sleep is still in my eyes.
'Come. I have had a long dream.'
And I: That wood?
'And two springs have passed us.'
'Not so far, no, not so far now,
There is a place but no one else knows it
A field in a valley . . .
Qu'ieu sui avinen,
Ieu lo sai,'

She must speak of the time
Of Arnaut de Mareuil, I thought, 'qu'ieu sui avinen.’

Light as the shadow of the fish
That falls through the pale green water.


Scheme AAX B CDXD XAXXEXBEX XE CD
Poetic Form
Metre 01011001 011010111001 10101011 010100111101 11101101 111010 1101011101 10010111011010 111110111011 1111011 0111 011111 11111111 1101111111 010010 1101 111 111101 1111111101 1101101 11101110
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 759
Words 156
Sentences 18
Stanzas 6
Stanza Lengths 3, 1, 4, 9, 2, 2
Lines Amount 21
Letters per line (avg) 27
Words per line (avg) 7
Letters per stanza (avg) 95
Words per stanza (avg) 26
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on April 26, 2023

46 sec read
101

Ezra Pound

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

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