Ezra Loomis Pound (1885-1972)
Envoi
2Tell her that sang me once that song of Lawes:
3Hadst thou but song
4As thou hast subjects known,
5Then were there cause in thee that should condone
6Even my faults that heavy upon me lie
7And build her glories their longevity.
8Tell her that sheds
9Such treasure in the air,
10Recking naught else but that her graces give
11Life to the moment,
12I would bid them live
13As roses might, in magic amber laid,
14Red overwrought with orange and all made
15One substance and one colour
16Braving time.
17Tell her that goes
18With song upon her lips
19But sings not out the song, nor knows
20The maker of it, some other mouth,
21May be as fair as hers,
22Might, in new ages, gain her worshippers,
23When our two dusts with Waller's shall be laid,
24Siftings on siftings in oblivion,
25Till change hath broken down
26All things save Beauty alone.
Notes
1] Pound echoes the song "Go Lovely Rose" by Edmund Waller (1606-87), set to music by Henry Lawes (1596-1662)
Online text copyright © 2009, Ian Lancashire (the Department of English) and the University of Toronto.
Published by the Web Development Group, Information Technology Services, University of Toronto Libraries.
Original text: E. P. [Ezra Pound], Hugh Selwyn Mauberley (London: The Ovid Press, April 23, 1920): 9028. del P685 H84 1920 Fisher Rare Book Library (no 42. of 200).
First publication date:
1920
Publication date note: See Gallup A19
RPO poem editor: Ian Lancashire
RP edition: RPO 1998.
Recent editing: 4:2002/4/15
Rhyme: irregular couplets and quatrains
Other poems by Ezra Loomis Pound
