Fellow Poundians:
 
In a fit of chronological affections a few nights ago I started reading
the "collected shorter poems of ezra pound" (New Directions, '76, ed.
Michael J. King) for the first time (me being a self-professed neophyte
of Pound, and deciding to begin at the beginning) and was instantly
somewhat disheartened by the opening lines of "Grace Before Song" (1st
poem in A Lume Spento, pg 7):
 
     Lord God of heaven that with mercy dight
Th' alternate prayer wheel of the night and light
Eternal hath to thee . . .
 
Not so much the fact that I wasn't entranced by the rest of the poem
(which I was, re "rain drops in the sea surge" imagery) but I was more
disheartened by the fact that I can't make out the syntax, let alone the
MEANING of the three lines quoted above.  "Dight" put me off at first,
naturally, but I found it in my Webster's all right: "archaic: to dress,
adorn".  That much is okay.  But what does the rest *mean*?
 
Thanks in advance to all who boot me in this business.  I'm not chafing
in protest against the intentional archaism in Pound's earlier poems, I
just want to know what it bloody MEANS.  And mayhaps this will lead to a
discussion of Pound's earlier poems, which would be interesting in
itself, and a remedy to the silence on the list.
 
Thanks again to all.
 
Cheers, Michael Kicey
 
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"you love in spite of, not because of"
                      -Lucas Klein
 
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Michael Kicey
F&M #836
Franklin and Marshall College
PO Box 3220
Lancaster PA  17604-3220
 
email: [log in to unmask]
net: http://acad.fandm.edu/~M_Kicey/
phone: 717.399.6747
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