Analysis of Homage To Sextus Propertius - VII
Ezra Pound 1885 (Hailey) – 1972 (Venice)
Me happy, night, night full of brightness;
Oh couch made happy by iny long delectations;
How many words talked out with abundant candles;
Struggles when the lights were taken away;
Now with bared breasts she wrestled against me,
Tunic spread in delay;
And she then opening my eyelids fallen in sleep,
Her lips upon them; and it was her mouth saying:
Sluggard!
In how many varied embraces, our changing arms,
Her kisses, how many, lingering on my lips.
'Turn not Venus into a blinded motion,
Eyes are the guides of love,
Paris took Helen naked coming from the bed of Menelaus,
Endymion's naked body, bright bait for Diana,'
such at least is the story.
While our fates twine together, sate we our eyes with love;
For long night comes upon you
and a day when no day returns.
Let the gods lay chains upon us
so that no day shall unbind them.
Fool who would set a term to love's madness,
For the sun shall drive with black horses,
earth shall bring wheat from barley,
The flood shall move toward the fountain
Ere love know moderations,
The fish shall swim in dry streams.
No, now while it may be, let not the fruit of life cease.
Dry wreaths drop their petals,
their stalks are woven in baskets,
To-day we take the great breath of lovers,
to-morrow fate shuts us in.
Though you give all your kisses
you give but few.
Nor can I shift my pains to other,
Hers will I be dead,
If she confer such nights upon me,
long is my life, long in years,
If she give me many,
God am I for the time.
Scheme | AABCDCXXE XXFGAXD GHXAX AIDFAXXBXXX IH XEDXDX |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Etheree (30%) |
Metre | 110111110 1111011011 110111101010 1010101001 1111110011 101001 011100111001 010110110110 1 01101001010101 010110100111 11100101010 110111 10110101010111 11010111010 1111010 110110101110111 1111011 00111101 10111011 1111111 1111011110 101111110 1111110 011101010 1111 0111011 1111111101111 111110 11110010 1111011110 1101110 1111110 1111 111111110 01111 110111011 1111101 111110 111101 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 1,447 |
Words | 281 |
Sentences | 11 |
Stanzas | 6 |
Stanza Lengths | 9, 7, 5, 11, 2, 6 |
Lines Amount | 40 |
Letters per line (avg) | 29 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 191 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 46 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 27, 2023
- 1:24 min read
- 91 Views
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"Homage To Sextus Propertius - VII" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 10 Jun 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/13263/homage-to-sextus-propertius---vii>.
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