Song in the Manner of Housman

Ezra Pound 1885 (Hailey) – 1972 (Venice)



O woe, woe,
People are born and die,
We also shall be dead pretty soon
Therefore let us act as if we were
dead already.

The bird sits on the hawthorn tree
But he dies also, presently.
Some lads get hung, and some get shot.
Woeful is this human lot.
Woe! woe, etcetera . . . .

London is a woeful place,
Shropshire is much pleasanter.
Then let us smile a little space
Upon fond nature's morbid grace.
Oh, Woe, woe, woe, etcetera . . .  

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on April 21, 2023

24 sec read
657

Quick analysis:

Scheme XXXAB BBCCD EAEED
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 439
Words 81
Stanzas 3
Stanza Lengths 5, 5, 5

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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