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""You the one, I the few"
said John Adams
speaking of fears in the abstract
to his volatile friend Mr. Jefferson,"
Ezra Pound (1885-1972), U.S. poet. Canto LXXXI (l. 49-52). . .
The Cantos of Ezra Pound. (1970, repr. 1991) New Directions. |
"Good writers are those who keep the language efficient. That is to say, keep it accurate, keep it clear."
Ezra Pound (1885-1972), U.S. poet, critic. The ABC of Reading, ch. 3 (1934). |
"Yet
Ere the season died a-cold
Borne upon a zephyr's shoulder
Irose through the aureate sky"
Ezra Pound (1885-1972), U.S. poet. Canto LXXXI (l. 94-97). . .
The Cantos of Ezra Pound. (1970, repr. 1991) New Directions. |
"As a bathtub lined with white porcelain,
When the hot water gives out or goes tepid,
So is the slow cooling of our chivalrous passion,
O my much praised but-not-altogether-satisfactory lady."
Ezra Pound (1885-1972), U.S. poet, critic. repr. In Collected Shorter Poems (1984). The Bath Tub, Lustra (1916).
The poem is thought to be addressed to Pound's fiancée Dorothy Shakespear, whom he married in April 1914. |
"What counts is the cultural level,"
Ezra Pound (1885-1972), U.S. poet. Canto LXXXI (l. 64). . .
The Cantos of Ezra Pound. (1970, repr. 1991) New Directions. |
"Like a skein of loose silk blown against a wall
She walks by the railing of a path in Kensington Gardens,
And she is dying piecemeal
of a sort of emotional anemia."
Ezra Pound (1885-1972), U.S. poet. The Garden (l. 1-4). . .
The Selected Poems of Ezra Pound. (1957) New Directions. |
"What thou lov'st well shall not be reft from thee
What thou lov'st well is thy true heritage
Whose world, or mine or theirs
or is it of none?"
Ezra Pound (1885-1972), U.S. poet. Canto LXXXI (l. 133-136). . .
The Cantos of Ezra Pound. (1970, repr. 1991) New Directions. |
"In her is the end of breeding.
Her boredom is exquisite and excessive.
She would like some one to speak to her,
And is almost afraid that I
will commit that indiscretion."
Ezra Pound (1885-1972), U.S. poet. The Garden (l. 8-12). . .
The Selected Poems of Ezra Pound. (1957) New Directions. |
"It hath brought palsey to bed, lyeth
between the young bride and her bridegroom
CO-TRA NATURA—
They have brought whores for Eleusis
Corpses are set to banquet
at behest of usura."
Ezra Pound (1885-1972), U.S. poet. Canto XLV (l. 44-49). . .
The Cantos of Ezra Pound. (1970, repr. 1991) New Directions. |
"install me in any profession
Save this damn'd profession of writing,
where one needs one's brains all the time."
Ezra Pound (1885-1972), U.S. poet. The Lake Isle (l. 14-16). . .
The Selected Poems of Ezra Pound. (1957) New Directions. |
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