Portrait d'une Femme

By Ezra Pound

Your mind and you are our Sargasso Sea,

London has swept about you this score years

And bright ships left you this or that in fee:

Ideas, old gossip, oddments of all things,

Strange spars of knowledge and dimmed wares of price.

Great minds have sought you — lacking someone else.

You have been second always. Tragical?

No. You preferred it to the usual thing:

One dull man, dulling and uxorious,

One average mind — with one thought less, each year.

Oh, you are patient, I have seen you sit

Hours, where something might have floated up.

And now you pay one. Yes, you richly pay.

You are a person of some interest, one comes to you

And takes strange gain away:

Trophies fished up; some curious suggestion;

Fact that leads nowhere; and a tale for two,

Pregnant with mandrakes, or with something else

That might prove useful and yet never proves,

That never fits a corner or shows use,

Or finds its hour upon the loom of days:

The tarnished, gaudy, wonderful old work;

Idols and ambergris and rare inlays,

These are your riches, your great store; and yet

For all this sea-hoard of deciduous things,

Strange woods half sodden, and new brighter stuff:

In the slow float of differing light and deep,

No! there is nothing! In the whole and all,

Nothing that's quite your own.

Yet this is you.

Ezra Pound: Poems Summary and Analysis of "A Pact" (1916)

Summary:

Pound begins this poem by acknowledging his animosity towards American poet Walt Whitman, writing
that he's "detested [him] long enough," and offering to make a pact. Pound describes himself as "a
grown child who has had a pig headed father," and offers his friendship to Whitman. Pound admits that
he has come to recognize the ways in which Whitman has paved the way for his own work. He ends with
"let there be commerce between us," accepting the inspiration that Whitman has given him.

Analysis:

To understand this short poem, it is first necessary to explore Pound's negative feelings towards Walt
Whitman. In 1909, Pound wrote an essay titled "What I Feel About Walt Whitman," in which he
denounced the older poet's "crudity" and "barbaric yawp." He believed that Walt Whitman was the
epitome of American authenticity. After Pound settled in the UK, he did not hold a very high opinion of
Whitman's classic American milieu. He also disliked Whitman's work because he felt that the poet did
not show enough restraint and reticence, and believed it impossible to consider him an artist without
those two virtues. Whitman and Pound ever likely never met in person, since the former died when
Pound was only seven years old.

Throughout this poem, it becomes clear that Pound once viewed Whitman as his creative antithesis, but
has since matured. He describes Whitman as a paternal figure, admitting that his previous behavior has
been "pig-headed." Now, he is a "grown child," and his views have appropriately evolved.

By comparing Whitman to a father figure, Pound insinuates that he felt intimidated by Whitman's
success. There is also a more obvious interpretation of this father/son metaphor; Whitman was alive
and writing long before Pound, and it is natural that modern poets would learn from their predecessors'
work, just as a son could learn from his father. Pound, however, was always reluctant to take inspiration
from others.

At the end of the poem, even though Pound has accepted Whitman's influence, he still offers a
backhanded compliment. He writes, "it was you who broke the new wood/now it is time for carving."
Pound describes Whitman's purpose in the poetic world as lesser than his own. He insinuates that
Whitman paved the way simply by finding this new wood and offering it to the world; now it is Pound's
turn to craft the raw material into refined artistic masterpieces. Therefore, even though Pound is
certainly presenting a more cordial view of the American poet than he has in the past, he offers subtle
reminders that his true opinion will never change.

Pound uses natural metaphors in the final lines of the poem like wood, sap, and roots, which are all
parts of trees. It may also be representative of Whitman's "crudity," according to Pound; nature is crude,
raw, and unpolished in its purest state, which is how Pound saw Whitman's writing. Meanwhile, Pound
sees his role as carving/refining the raw wood.

Ezra Pound: Poems Summary and Analysis of "Portrait d'une Femme" (1912)

Summary:

This poem paints an obscure image of a woman, beginning with a handful of sea metaphors describing
her and her interactions with other people. She has been living in London for at least twenty years
("score" means twenty). On line three, "bright ships" is likely a metaphor for the people that surround
her, leaving her abstract "fees" like ideas and gossip. "Great minds," probably philosophers, writers, or
others of that stature who "lack someone else" tend to seek her out. Even though she is always "second
choice," she prefers this life to being stuck in a dull marriage.

In return, she gives theses people "facts that lead nowhere; and a tale or two," which aren't particularly
useful. The poem characterizes the woman's "riches" as decorative and gaudy. Despite this ongoing
exchange, there is nothing that truly belongs to the woman, but this transience defines her. The poem
finishes with the line "Yet this is you," which suggests that she would not be who she is if she had things
to call her own.

Analysis:

Pound was certainly not the first to title one of his works "Portrait of a Woman" or some variation; the
title is an homage to Henry James's novel "Portrait of a Lady." T.S. Eliot and William Carlos Williams also
composed poems with titles based on James's. To this end, a male poet with a female muse is a
common poetic trope. In Pound's "Portrait," the poet cloaks his female subject in tattered mystique.
Critics and historians have suggested that Pound's particular muse for this poem was Florence Farr, a
British actress and writer.
Pound wrote this poem in blank verse, rather than the free verse he was frequently writing at the time.
Blank verse is written in iambic pentameter, a rhythm most commonly associated with Shakespeare
where each line consists of five sets of two-syllable "feet," or ten syllables in each line. In iambic
pentameter, every other syllable is stressed. Though the vast majority of lines in "Portrait" follow this
pattern, there are a few scattered which are either shorter or longer than ten syllables. There are a
number of reasons why Pound may have done this, however, as it is common for poets to vary meter in
order to draw attention to specific lines. Therefore, it is likely that Pound wanted to emphasize the lines
that have irregular meter.

In the very first line, the speaker associates the subject with the sea, an extended metaphor that
continues throughout the poem. He references the Sargasso Sea even though it is far from the subject's
residence in London. However, the Sargasso Sean is known for collecting seaweed and debris just as this
woman is known for collecting knowledge, gossip, and ideas. The sea also symbolizes this woman's
reluctance to tie herself down; the sea flows on and on forever, collecting whatever it finds, and the
woman would rather do the same rather than dropping anchor somewhere. The ever-changing sea
belongs to no one, just like this woman, and at the same, nothing and no one belongs to it/her.

Pound reveals his fascination with economic theory in this poem through all the references to
commerce and trade. He frames the woman and her ephemeral relationships as business interactions.
"Great minds" and "bright ships" seek her out and provide her with gossip, knowledge, and ideas in
exchange for the gaudy, decorative tales and useless facts. The setting fits with the commercial theme
as well; the Sargasso Sea is located on an important trade route to the Caribbean, and London, of
course, is a major global trading hub.

The speaker finishes by emphasizing that despite all the tidbits this woman has accumulated, none of it
is truly her own. Does that make all of it worthless? Does that mean these great minds are sharing their
secrets with others as well, so they are not uniquely hers? There are many possible interpretations for
the final few lines, though the ephemeral nature of the woman and her life is apparent. The ending of
the poem is purposefully vague.

Ezra Pound: Poems Summary and Analysis of "In a Station of the Metro" (1913)

Summary:

In this quick poem, Pound describes watching faces appear in a metro station. It is unclear whether he is
writing from the vantage point of a passenger on the train itself or on the platform. The setting is Paris,
France, and as he describes these faces as a "crowd," meaning the station is quite busy. He compares
these faces to "petals on a wet, black bough," suggesting that on the dark subway platform, the people
look like flower petals stuck on a tree branch after a rainy night.
Analysis:

The brevity of this poem can be intimidating to analyze; after all, how much can a poet possibly convey
in merely two lines? However, the shortness of this poem fits with its topic; when reading, the words
flash by quickly, just as a subway speeds away from the platform in an instant. The doors open quickly,
revealing a sea of faces, and then close again - the faces are gone after a fleeting glance. This poem's
length and quick pace matches the constant motion of a train as it speeds by.

Though short, this poem is very sensory in nature; it allows the reader to imagine a scene while reading
the lines. Through Pound's economical description of these faces as "petals on a wet, black bough," he is
able to invoke a transient tone.

This poem is also a clear example of the Imagist style. Victorian poets would frequently use an
abundance of flowery adjectives and lengthy descriptions in their poems. Yet Pound employs a
Modernist approach to "In a Station of the Metro," using only a few descriptive words (and no verbs
among them) to successfully get his point across.

Pound uses the word "apparition," which is a ghostly, otherworldly figure, something ephemeral that
fades in and out of view. By using this word, Pound reveals surprise at seeing this sea of faces as the
subway doors open, which, for a brief moment, fills him with a sense of awe and astonishment. Also, the
impermanence of the image gives the poem a melancholy tone, as if Pound is contemplating the fragility
of life.

Pound connects images of petals and boughs to a mass of humanity - linking a man-made metropolitan
scene with the cycles of nature. Pound's use of living metaphors adds to the fleeting tone of this poem.
Flowers and trees, like human beings on a metro, are constantly moving, growing, and changing. This
short glimpse through the metro doors is the only time that group of people will be as they are in that
instant. Similarly, no two petals will ever look exactly the same, as rains come and go, winters freeze,
and new buds bloom.

In a station at the metro

The apparition of these faces in the crowd;

Petals on a wet, black bough.

The pact

I make a pact with you, Walt Whitman -

I have detested you long enough.

I come to you as a grown child

Who has had a pig-headed father;

I am old enough now to make friends.

It was you that broke the new wood,

Now is a time for carving.

We have one sap and one root -

Let there be commerce between us.