Coitus

Ezra Pound 1885 (Hailey) – 1972 (Venice)



The gilded phaloi of the crocuses
are thrusting at the spring air.
Here is there naught of dead gods
But a procession of festival,
A procession, Giulio Romano,
Fit for your spirit to dwell in.
Dione, your nights are upon us.

The dew is upon the leaf.
The night about us is restless.

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 08, 2023

16 sec read
113

Quick analysis:

Scheme XXXXXXA XA
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 282
Words 55
Stanzas 2
Stanza Lengths 7, 2

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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1 Comment
  • msharpe01
    Obviously the Greek and Roman mythology may put some people off but if one knows that Dione is Aphrodite, the Goddess of Love and Giulio Romano was a great renaissance painter and architect, who worked under Raphael, the poem has more meaning. Phaloi is a horticultural version of phallus. Pound is evoking spring as a driver of life and eros. Short and brillilant. 
    LikeReply1 year ago

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