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Ezra Pound
Ezra Pound (1885 - 1972 / Hailey / Idaho)
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Ezra Pound was born in Hailey, Idaho, in 1885. He completed two years of college at the University of Pennsylvania and earned a degree from Hamilton C .. more >>
80 poems of Ezra Pound
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Before Sleep

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7.3 /10
(9 votes)



  The lateral vibrations caress me,
They leap and caress me,
They work pathetically in my favour,
They seek my financial good.

She of the spear stands present.
The gods of the underworld attend me, O Annubis,
These are they of thy company.
With a pathetic solicitude they attend me;
Undulant,
Their realm is the lateral courses.


Light!
I am up to follow thee, Pallas.
Up and out of their caresses.
You were gone up as a rocket,
Bending your passages from right to left and from left to right
In the flat projection of a spiral.
The gods of drugged sleep attend me,
Wishing me well;
I am up to follow thee, Pallas.

Ezra Pound


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  Comments about this poem (Before Sleep by Ezra Pound )
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  Czyka Tumaliuan  (1/16/2008 6:28:00 AM)

In addition, he doesnt want 'sympathy'. He accepts that he should be looked down with pity for he exchanged wisdom for money.
  Czyka Tumaliuan  (1/16/2008 6:27:00 AM)

REPLY TO MR. HAGER: Apparently, the persona in the poem is a person who has a 'side job' that helps him in his financial needs. However, the persona seems to be unhappy with such work as it is not intellectually fulfilling. Thus, he seeks Pallas in his sleep...since it's only there that he will meet wisdom...only in his dreams.. I like the poem.
  Stanton Hager  (8/20/2006 8:40:00 AM)

For 'pathetic/pathetically' read sympathetic/sympathetically.

This INVOCATION poem curiously invokes the wrong
goddess. Pallas (Athena) governs wisdom, war, and the
practical arts. For a good night's sleep, one might better
invoke Nyx, mother of night, or her son Hypnos, god of
sleep....Words & phrases like 'rocket' and 'flat projection
of a spiral' fail to 'modernize' the poem....Has some
pretty lines but some awkward ones, too. Not among
Pound's best.

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11/22/2009 7:48:43 PM. #.34# You Are Here: Before Sleep by Ezra Pound

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