A Pact
I make a pact with you, Walt Whitman--I have detested you long enough.I come to you as a grown childWho 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.
Words in this poem
- pact n.
- An agreement; a league; a compact; a covenant. [L. pactum, fr. paciscere to make a bargain or contract, fr. pacere to settle, or agree upon; cf. pangere to fasten, Gr. paca bond, and E. fang: cf. F. pacie. Cf]
- broke v. i.
- To transact business for another. Brome. [See Broker, and cf. Brook.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
A Pact is in the public domain. This text is taken from Lustra of Ezra Pound, Project Gutenberg ebook #55564; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Ezra Pound, A Pact, in Lustra (1916), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #55564, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/pound-lustra/a-pact.html, id L01255.
Form and metre
A Pact is 9 lines in a single verse paragraph. It is unrhymed, as far as the pronouncing dictionary can tell. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 75%). 96% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.2 syllables. 3 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 11% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in iambic tetrameter.
Measured by Laurel's pipeline, not copied from a handbook: how stress and metre are counted, how rhyme is lettered, how a drifted rhyme is found. Where the dictionary cannot confirm a rhyme the letter is withheld, not guessed.
Scansion, line by line
Each line with its syllable count and the stresses the words themselves fix: / stressed, ˘ unstressed, · a syllable the word leaves free and the metre decides. Read against iambic tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| I make a pact with you, Walt Whitman-- | 9 | ·······/˘ |
| I have detested you long enough. | 9 | ··˘/˘··˘/ |
| I come to you as a grown child | 8 | ········ |
| Who has had a pig-headed father; | 9 | ·····/˘/˘ |
| I am old enough now to make friends. | 9 | ···˘/···· |
| It was you that broke the new wood, | 8 | ········ |
| Now is a time for carving. | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| We have one sap and one root-- | 7 | ······· |
| Let there be commerce between us. | 8 | ···/˘··· |
The reader shows the same poem with its rhymes coloured and a stress row above each line, the notes beside their stanzas, and any word's definition on a tap; the analysis page takes the whole book apart. How every part of this site was made.