Classic and Contemporary Poetry: Explained

Ezra Pound's "Doria" presents a meditation on the enduring nature of love and the transience of human existence. A brief yet evocative poem, it explores themes of ephemerality, the enduring elements of nature, and the desire for a love that withstands the test of time. The choice of the title, "Doria," can be interpreted as an allusion to a person, perhaps a loved one, adding a sense of intimacy to the poem.

Pound opens the poem by entreating his love to be "in me as the eternal moods / of the bleak wind, and not / As transient things are- / gaiety of flowers." He contrasts the "eternal moods" of the wind with the "transient" nature of flowers' gaiety. This dichotomy sets up the speaker's yearning for a love that is eternal, like the bleak wind, rather than transient and fleeting, like flowers. The word "bleak" underlines the raw, sometimes harsh, but enduring qualities of the elements, emphasizing the kind of emotional connection the speaker seeks-one unafraid of life's harshness.

In the next lines, "Have me in the strong loneliness / of sunless cliffs / And of grey waters," the speaker extends the metaphor to other natural elements-cliffs and waters, which are similarly enduring but often considered 'lonely' or 'sunless.' The words "strong loneliness" and "sunless cliffs" denote both resilience and a sort of tragic beauty, again defining the qualities that the speaker wishes their love to possess. Cliffs stand against the test of time, and waters endure; they represent permanence and an acceptance of solitude or bleakness, further amplifying the speaker's desire for a love that is strong and enduring.

The final lines, "Let the gods speak softly of us / In days hereafter, / The shadowy flowers of Orcus / Remember thee," make an appeal to divine entities and a future beyond the mortal world. The word "Orcus" refers to the Roman god of the underworld, invoking the realm of the dead and, by extension, the idea of eternity. The "shadowy flowers" that reside there could be interpreted as memories or souls, suggesting that even in the afterlife, the speaker wishes for their love to be remembered softly and kindly by divine beings.

Ezra Pound, known for his mastery in encapsulating complex ideas in succinct poetic forms, delivers a rich tapestry of emotion and thought in "Doria." The poem does not merely seek to immortalize a romantic relationship; it grapples with the larger question of how love can become eternal. By paralleling the enduring, albeit often bleak, facets of nature with the qualities desired in a lasting emotional bond, Pound creates a poignant piece that speaks to the universal human desire for a love that transcends temporal limitations. The result is a nuanced examination of love's potential for timelessness in a world fraught with transience

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