Analysis of Villanelle: The Psychological Hour
Ezra Pound 1885 (Hailey) – 1972 (Venice)
I had over prepared the event,
that much was ominous.
With middle-ageing care
I had laid out just the right books.
I had almost turned down the pages.
Beauty is so rare a thing.
So few drink of my fountain.
So much barren regret,
So many hours wasted!
And now I watch, from the window,
the rain, the wandering busses.
"Their little cosmos is shaken" -
the air is alive with that fact.
In their parts of the city
they are played on by diverse forces.
How do I know?
Oh, I know well enough.
For them there is something afoot.
As for me;
I had over-prepared the event -
Beauty is so rare a thing.
So few drink of my fountain.
Two friends: a breath of the forest. . .
Friends? Are people less friends
because one has just, at last, found them?
Twice they promised to come.
"Between the night and the morning?"
Beauty would drink of my mind.
Youth would awhile forget
my youth is gone from me.
(Speak up! You have danced so stiffly?
Someone admired your works,
And said so frankly.
"Did you talk like a fool,
The first night?
The second evening?"
"But they promised again:
'To-morrow at tea-time'.")
Now the third day is here -
no word from either;
No word from her nor him,
Only another man's note:
"Dear Pound, I am leaving England."
Scheme | axxxb CD exfb dxgxfxxga CD xxxx cxeg gxg xxc xx xxxxx |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 111001001 111100 11011 11111011 11111010 1011101 1111110 111001 1101010 01111010 01010010 11010110 01101111 0111010 111110110 1111 111101 11111001 111 111001001 1011101 1111110 11011010 111011 011111111 111011 01010010 1011111 110101 111111 11111110 101011 01110 111101 011 01010 111001 110111 101111 11110 111011 1001011 11111010 |
Closest metre | Iambic trimeter |
Characters | 1,200 |
Words | 236 |
Sentences | 31 |
Stanzas | 11 |
Stanza Lengths | 5, 2, 4, 9, 2, 4, 4, 3, 3, 2, 5 |
Lines Amount | 43 |
Letters per line (avg) | 22 |
Words per line (avg) | 5 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 85 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 21 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 23, 2023
- 1:10 min read
- 310 Views
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"Villanelle: The Psychological Hour" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 10 Jun 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/13413/villanelle%3A-the-psychological-hour>.
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