Analysis of To-Em-Meps ‘The Unmoving Cloud'

Ezra Pound 1885 (Hailey) – 1972 (Venice)



I
The clouds have gathered, and gathered,
and the rain falls and falls,
The eight ply of the heavens
are all folded into one darkness,
And the wide, flat road stretches out.
I stop in my room toward the East, quiet, quiet,
I pat my new cask of wine.
My friends are estranged, or far distant,
I bow my head and stand still.

II
Rain, rain, and the clouds have gathered,
The eight ply of the heavens are darkness,
The flat land is turned into river.
'Wine, wine, here is wine!'
I drink by my eastern window.
I think of talking and man,
And no boat, no carriage, approaches.

III
The trees in my east-looking garden
are bursting out with new twigs,
They try to stir new affection,
And men say the sun and moon keep on moving
because they can't find a soft seat.
The birds flutter to rest in my tree,
and I think I have heard them saying,
'It is not that there are no other men
But we like this fellow the best,
But however we long to speak
He can not know of our sorrow.'


Scheme ABXXCXXDXX ABCXDEXX AFXFGXXGXXXE
Poetic Form Etheree  (30%)
Tetractys  (27%)
Metre 1 01110010 001101 0111010 111001110 00111101 1101101011010 1111111 111011110 1111011 1 11001110 0111010110 011110110 11111 11111010 1111001 011110010 1 010111010 1101111 11111010 01101011110 01111011 011011011 011111110 1111111101 11111001 1101111 111111010
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 945
Words 194
Sentences 10
Stanzas 3
Stanza Lengths 10, 8, 12
Lines Amount 30
Letters per line (avg) 25
Words per line (avg) 6
Letters per stanza (avg) 246
Words per stanza (avg) 63
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on April 24, 2023

57 sec read
119

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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