Classic and Contemporary Poetry: Explained

"In Durance (1907)" by Ezra Pound offers an introspective journey into the notion of homesickness, but not in the conventional sense of yearning for a physical place. The poem tackles a psychological and spiritual homesickness, a longing for kindred spirits who share an affinity for "beauty and the arts." Given that Ezra Pound was one of the leading figures of the Modernist movement, the poem can be seen in the broader context of the disillusionment and yearning that marked this period in literary history.

The opening lines set the emotional tone: "I am homesick after mine own kind." The speaker acknowledges the presence of "friendly faces" around him, but clarifies that these people do not reach the core of his being. It's not physical companionship that he seeks, but a meeting of minds and souls, an intellectual and emotional communion. He describes his life as a "flame" confined to his "heart's own hearth," which remains untended by the ordinary people who "reach me not."

This flame is a powerful metaphor, encompassing the speaker's passion for art, beauty, and intellectual endeavors that he feels are unrecognized or unshared by those around him. It is a flame that only kindred spirits, his "own soul-kin," can fuel and sustain.

The poem also wrestles with the role of art and the artist in society. The line "These sell our pictures" likely hints at a marketplace that commodifies art but fails to understand its deeper essence. The speaker longs for those who have "some breath for beauty and the arts," who feel art as a "calling to the soul," borrowing the terminology of Greek daemons and "KALOUN," or beauty, to underline the ancient and spiritual aspects of his longing.

Furthermore, the poem is deeply entrenched in an existential solitude. While the speaker acknowledges a communion of kindred spirits, they are often relegated to the "shadows," the invisible fringes of his life. Yet he is uplifted by the idea that they exist, separated by "seas" or "hills," but connected by a common yearning for something "Beyond, beyond, beyond."

Pound explores this sense of duality in human existence: the tug between the material and spiritual, the known and the unknown. The speaker admits to often hiding like his kindred spirits, revealing himself only occasionally "For love, or hope, or beauty or for power," before retreating back to a state of contemplative solitude, "untouched by echoes of the world."

The final lines resonate as a call to unity among like-minded souls. Despite physical distances or barriers, the speaker's soul "sings 'Up!' and we are one." It is a powerful affirmation of shared dreams, experiences, and aspirations.

"In Durance (1907)" thus serves as an anthem for those who feel out of place in a world that often misvalues or misunderstands the profound depths of human longing for beauty, art, and intellectual communion. It is a poem that encapsulates the existential loneliness of an artist, the eternal homesickness for kindred souls, and yet leaves the reader with a sense of hope that such souls are indeed out there, waiting to be found.

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