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HUGH SELWYN MAUBERLEY: 1. E.P. ODE POUR L'ELECTION DE SON SEPULCHRE by EZRA POUND

Poem Explanation Poet Analysis

First Line: FOR THREE YEARS, OUT OF KEY WITH HIS TIME
Last Line: NO ADJUNCT TO THE MUSES' DIADEM.
Subject(s): LONDON; POETRY & POETS;

LIFE AND CONTACTS

For three years, out of key with his time,
He strove to resuscitate the dead art
Of poetry; to maintain "the sublime"
In the old sense. Wrong from the start --

No, hardly, but seeing he had been born
In a half savage country, out of date;
Bent resolutely on wringing lilies from the acorn;
Capaneus; trout for factitious bait;

"Idmen gar toi panth'hos eni Troiei,"
Caught in the unstopped ear;
Giving the rocks small lee-way
The chopped seas held him, therefore, that year.

His true Penelope was Flaubert,
He fished by obstinate isles;
Observed the elegance of Circe's hair
Rather than the mottoes on sun-dials.

Unaffected by "the march of events,"
He passed from men's memory in @3l'an trentiesme@1
@3De son eage@1; the case presents
No adjunct to the Muses' diadem.



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