Ezra Pound

Hugh Selwyn Mauberley [Part II]

I Turned from the “eau-forte Par Jaquemart” To the strait head Of Messalina: “His True Penelope Was Flaubert,” And his tool The engraver's. Firmness, Not the full smile, His art, but an art In profile; Colourless Pier Francesca, Pisanello lacking the skill To forge Achaia. II “Qu’est ce qu’ils savent de l’amour, et qu’est ce qu’ils peuvent comprendre? S’ils ne comprennent pas la poésie, s’ils ne sentent pas la musique, qu’est ce qu’ils peuvent comprendre de cette passion en comparaison avec laquelle la rose est grossière et le parfum desviolettes un tonnerre? ”         —CAID ALI For three years, diabolus in the scale, He drank ambrosia, All passes, ANANGKE prevails, Came end, at last, to that Arcadia. He had moved amid her phantasmagoria, Amid her galaxies, NUKTIS’AGALMA . . . . . . . . Drifted . . . drifted precipitate Asking time to be rid of . . . Of his bewilderment; to designate His new found orchid. . . . To be certain . . . certain . . . (Amid ærial flowers) . . . time for arrangements— Drifted on To the final estrangement; Unable in the supervening blankness To sift TO AGATHON from the chaff Until he found his sieve . . . Ultimately, his seismograph: —Given that is his “fundamental passion,” This urge to convey the relation Of eye-lid and cheek-bone By verbal manifestations; To present the series Of curious heads in medallion— He had passed, inconscient, full gaze, The wide-banded irides And botticellian sprays implied In their diastasis; Which anæsthesis, noted a year late, And weighed, revealed his great affect, (Orchid), mandate Of Eros, a retrospect. . . . Mouths biting empty air, The still stone dogs, Caught in metamorphosis, were Left him as epilogues. “THE AGE DEMANDED” VIDE POEM II. PAGE 355 For this agility chance found Him of all men, unfit As the red-beaked steeds of The Cytheræan for a chain bit. The glow of porcelain Brought no reforming sense To his perception Of the social inconsequence. Thus, if her colour Came against his gaze, Tempered as if It were through a perfect glaze He made no immediate application Of this to relation of the state To the individual, the month was more temperate Because this beauty had been. . . . . . The coral isle, the lion-coloured sand Burst in upon the porcelain revery: Impetuous troubling Of his imagery. . . . . . Mildness, amid the neo-Nietzschean clatter, His sense of graduations, Quite out of place amid Resistance to current exacerbations, Invitation, mere invitation to perceptivity Gradually led him to the isolation Which these presents place Under a more tolerant, perhaps, examination. By constant elimination The manifest universe Yielded an armour Against utter consternation, A Minoan undulation, Seen, we admit, amid ambrosial circumstances Strengthened him against The discouraging doctrine of chances, And his desire for survival, Faint in the most strenuous moods, Became an Olympianapathein In the presence of selected perceptions. A pale gold, in the aforesaid pattern, The unexpected palms Destroying, certainly, the artist’s urge, Left him delighted with the imaginary Audition of the phantasmal sea-surge, Incapable of the least utterance or composition, Emendation, conservation of the “better tradition,” Refinement of medium, elimination of superfluities, August attraction or concentration. Nothing, in brief, but maudlin confession, Irresponse to human aggression, Amid the precipitation, down-float Of insubstantial manna, Lifting the faint susurrus Of his subjective hosannah. Ultimate affronts to human redundancies; Non-esteem of self-styled “his betters” Leading, as he well knew, To his final Exclusion from the world of letters. IVScattered MoluccasNot knowing, day to day,The first day’s end, in the next noon;The placid waterUnbroken by the Simoon;Thick foliagePlacid beneath warm suns,Tawn fore-shoresWashed in the cobalt of oblivions;Or through dawn-mistThe grey and roseOf the juridicalFlamingoes;A consciousness disjunct,Being but this overblottedSeriesOf intermittences;Coracle of Pacific voyages,The unforecasted beach;Then on an oarRead this:“I wasAnd I no more exist;“Here driftedAn hedonist. ”MEDALLIONLuini in porcelain!The grand pianoUtters a profaneProtest with her clear soprano. The sleek head emergesFrom the gold-yellow frockAs Anadyomene in the openingPages of Reinach. Honey-red, closing the face-oval,A basket-work of braids which seem as if they wereSpun in King Minos’ hallFrom metal, or intractable amber;The face-oval beneath the glaze,Bright in its suave bounding-line, as,Beneath half-watt rays,The eyes turn topaz. IV IV Scattered Moluccas Scattered Moluccas Not knowing, day to day, Not knowing, day to day, The first day’s end, in the next noon; The first day’s end, in the next noon; The placid water The placid water Unbroken by the Simoon; Unbroken by the Simoon; Thick foliage Thick foliage Placid beneath warm suns, Placid beneath warm suns, Tawn fore-shores Tawn fore-shores Washed in the cobalt of oblivions; Washed in the cobalt of oblivions; Or through dawn-mist Or through dawn-mist The grey and rose The grey and rose Of the juridical Of the juridical Flamingoes; Flamingoes; A consciousness disjunct, A consciousness disjunct, Being but this overblotted Being but this overblotted Series Series Of intermittences; Of intermittences; Coracle of Pacific voyages, Coracle of Pacific voyages, The unforecasted beach; The unforecasted beach; Then on an oar Then on an oar Read this: Read this: “I was “I was And I no more exist; And I no more exist; “Here drifted “Here drifted An hedonist. ” An hedonist. ” MEDALLION MEDALLION Luini in porcelain! Luini in porcelain! The grand piano The grand piano Utters a profane Utters a profane Protest with her clear soprano. Protest with her clear soprano. The sleek head emerges The sleek head emerges From the gold-yellow frock From the gold-yellow frock As Anadyomene in the opening As Anadyomene in the opening Pages of Reinach. Pages of Reinach. Honey-red, closing the face-oval, Honey-red, closing the face-oval, A basket-work of braids which seem as if they were A basket-work of braids which seem as if they were Spun in King Minos’ hall Spun in King Minos’ hall From metal, or intractable amber; From metal, or intractable amber; The face-oval beneath the glaze, The face-oval beneath the glaze, Bright in its suave bounding-line, as, Bright in its suave bounding-line, as, Beneath half-watt rays, Beneath half-watt rays, The eyes turn topaz. The eyes turn topaz.