Analysis of Masks

Ezra Pound 1885 (Hailey) – 1972 (Venice)



These tales of old disguisings, are they not
Strange myths of souls that found themselves among
Unwonted folk that spake an hostile tongue,
Some soul from all the rest who'd not forgot
The star-span acres of a former lot
Where boundless mid the clouds his course he swung,
Or carnate with his elder brothers sung
Ere ballad-makers lisped of Camelot?

Old singers half-forgetful of their tunes,
Old painters color-blind come back once more,
Old poets skill-less in the wind-heart runes,
Old wizards lacking in their wonder-lore:

All they that with strange sadness in their eyes
Ponder in silence o'er earth's queynt devyse?


Scheme ABBAABBA CDCD XC
Poetic Form
Metre 11111111 1111110101 11111101 1111011101 0111010101 1101011111 111110101 110101110 1101010111 1101011111 1101100111 1101001101 1111110011 1001010111
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 616
Words 104
Sentences 3
Stanzas 3
Stanza Lengths 8, 4, 2
Lines Amount 14
Letters per line (avg) 36
Words per line (avg) 7
Letters per stanza (avg) 167
Words per stanza (avg) 34
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 24, 2023

32 sec read
144

Ezra Pound

Ezra Weston Loomis Pound was an American expatriate poet and critic of the early modernist movement. more…

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