THE GARDEN.

Like a skein of loose silk blown against a wall
She walks by the railing of a path in Kensington Gardens,
And she is dying piece-meal
      Tof a sort of emotional anemia. 

And round about there is a rabble
Of the filthy, sturdy, unkillable infants of the very poor.
They shall inherit the earth. 

In her is the end of breeding.
Her boredom is exquisite and excessive.
She would like some one to speak to her,
And is almost afraid that I
      Twill commit that indiscretion. 

The first line of the Pound’s poem compares his first protagonist, a young woman to a length of silk-an elegant and exquisite material which serves as a simile suggesting the woman’s class and social position. She is walking along the rails of a Kensington garden-an exclusively upper class area in central London. The silk is loose and is being blown, much like the young woman who seems to be somewhat lost and alone, drifting away from her bourgeoisie expectations. Pound ends the stanza with another metaphor, this time directed at the woman’s mental state. Literally, anemia is a condition in which red blood cells in your body are lacking, causing the sufferer to feel weak and tired. In the poem, the protagonist appears to feel fatally tired of her position, the elitist ideals that govern her life.

In the second stanza, attention is drawn to an indeterminate number of lower-class children that linger n the streets that surround her. The last line of the poem states that, the poet is referring to the dissipating bourgeoisie in Britain at the time, when contrasted with the ever-increasing lower classes.

Ezra Pound then returns to his protagonist, opening the next stanza where the British upper class, in order to protect their noble rank, were adamant t keep marriages within their own exclusive class, leading to a limited and often undesirable group of potential spouses. He then refers to the woman’s excessive boredom, a trait often identifiable in the youth of the elite class, a boredom that emerges with an overly sheltered and comfortable life.

The final stanza opens with the woman’s desire to speak to somebody. At this moment, another character, an older male, is introduced. He appears t be of the same social class as the children. She has noticed this man, but because of her fear of improper conduct, the fear that has been instilled in her, she appears afraid of the possibility that he might say something. Both her desire and fear are both witnessed by this man, whose words from the last line of the poem.

A PACT.

I make a pact with you, Walt Whitman -
I have detested you long enough.
I come to you as a grown child
Who has had a pig-headed father;
I am old enough now to make friends.
It was you that broke the new wood,
Now is a time for carving.
We have one sap and one root -
Let there be commerce between us. 

A pact is an agreement, covenant or a compact between two sides. This poem is describing an agreement between two former enemies that have had a bad past. This pact shown in the poem is to put all past conflicts aside and begin a new relationship. Walt Whitman was a poet, known for his free verse poetry. This poem relates to the relationship between Ezra Pound and Walt Whitman. “I am old enough now to make new friends”, this passage is describing how Ezra Pound is mature enough to understand and appreciate Walt Whitman’s poetry to its full extent.

The last four lines, emphasizes how Whitman started and influenced modern poetry. To which Ezra Pound says in the last line, portraying the message that Ezra believes he wants to change the style of poetry that Whitman had created. The second last line of the poem is a metaphor that Ezra uses to explain how Pound and Whitman have the same background and interest.

The conflict between the two poets works very well in intriguing the reader and the many interesting metaphors used by Pound for this relationship between him and Whitman. Despite, the poem being very shorts there is a feeling as if Pound had possibly more to say about Whitman, a poet whom he respected greatly.

THE GIRL.

The tree has entered my hands,
The sap has ascended my arms,
The tree has grown in my breast -
Downward,
The branches grow out of me, like arms.

Tree you are,
Moss you are,
You are violets with wind above them.
A child - so high - you are,
And all this is folly to the world. 

The first verse describes the union between the tree and the poet. It may also suggest the present/future union he has with a family tree growing out of his love. In the first line he appears to be holding the tree tenderly in his hands as it sways towards him. The next line is more intimate, as he reaches up to her; he finds her blood is flowing through his veins. For both trees and men have veins. The metaphor continues, we see image of a love that has invaded the core of a human’s heart as deeply as the sap penetrates the heartwood of a tree. This love roots him. He will not leave her. Indeed, he cannot even if he wants to. Their love is a branching, embracing love. These branches are their limbs, but they are also branches on the family tree. The branches are children, growing out of and embraced by love of his hear.

In the second verse, the poet speaks to the tree girl herself. Instead of “the” tree being described for her, she IS the tree. Moss speaks of old age and the passage of time. Moss takes time to grow, time spent standing still. Alternatively, one can interpret this verse as a conversation between the man and his tree girl. She is the young tree; he is an old man with a mossy beard. Violets speak of eye color and fragrance, which is released by the wind. Thus suffering only serves to make her more beautiful and attractive, their love stronger. The flowers grow below on the earth, not above where the limbs embrace and reach up to the sky. The wind plays freely with the woman’s hair, as it tangles tree branches in a chaos in the gale. The tree-girl is innocent and child-like. She is like a child climbing, growing, achieving. Though she is supported by her older and more experienced lover, she lifts him up too. The world doesn't understand them.

Style Of Writing

Ezra Pound was one of the 20^th century’s most influential voices in American and English literature. Pound advanced a “modern” movement in both literature's  His pro-Fascist broadcasts in Italy during WWII led to his arrest and confinement until 1958 for which his writings are still judged by. His contribution to poetry began with his promotion Imagism, a movement that derived its technique from classical Chinese and Japanese poetry, stressing clarity, precision and economy of language called ‘haiku’.

In 1912, Pound helped create a movement that he and others called “Imagism”, which signalled a new literary direction for the poet. At the core of Imagism, was a push to set a more direct course with language, shedding the sentiment that had so wholly shaped Victorian and Romantic poetry  Imagism favored precision of imagery and clear, sharp language; it was described as the most influential movement in English poetry. Pound rejected the sentiment and discursiveness typical of much Romantic and Victorian poetry.

Precision and economy were highly valued by Pound and the other proponents of the movement, which included F. S. Flint, William Carlos William, Amy Lowell, Richard Aldington and Hilda Doolittle. Imagism reflected the changes happening in other art forms, most notably painting and the Cubists. But Pound’s connection to Imagism was short-lived. After just a few years, he stepped aside, frustrated when he couldn't secure total control of the movement from Lowell and the others.

Pound believed himself to be an optimist, who in a fashion outlined his hopes for a dream society where art and culture was king. His legacy to literature is such that no matter what his controversial views, he remains one of the most studied artists of the twentieth century.

Ezra Pound

Ezra Pound was born on October 30, 1885, in Hailey, Idaho. He was the only child of Homer Loomis Pound, a Federal Land Office official, and his wife, Isabel. He spent the bulk of his childhood just outside Philadelphia, where his father had moved the family after accepting a job with the U.S. Mint. He attended Cheltenham Military Academy, for two years but finished his finished his high school education at a local public school. At the age of 15 he told his parents that he wanted to be a poet. Though his chosen career wasn't something he had inherited directly from his more conventional parents, Homer and Isabel were supportive of their son's choice.

In 1907, Pound accepted a teaching job at Indiana's Wabash College. However, he soon left cause of his slightly bohemian and artistic nature which made the job less perfect. He studied literature and languages in college and in 1908 with just $80 in his pocket; he set sail for Europe, and landed in Venice brimming with confidence that he would soon make a name for himself in the world of poetry, where he published several successful books of poetry. With his own money, Pound paid for the publication of his first book of poems, "A Lume Spento."

He was outraged by the loss of life during the WWI, he lost faith in England, after which he embraced Mussolini’s fascism, expressed support for Hitler and wrote for publications owned by Oswald Mosley. He spent months in detention in a U.S. military camp in Pisa, including 25 days in a six-by-six-foot outdoor steel cage that triggered a mental breakdown. Deemed unfit to stand trial, he was incarcerated in St. Elizabeth’s psychiatric hospital in Washington D.C, for over 12 years and was released from in 1958, thanks to a campaign by his fellow writers, and returned to live in Italy until his death.