Anyte III
A sad and great evil is the expectation of death--And there are also the inane expenses of the funeral;Let us therefore cease from pitying the deadFor after death there comes no other calamity.
Words in this poem
- inane a.
- Without contents; empty; void of sense or intelligence; purposeless; pointless; characterless; useless. [L. inanis.]
- pitying a.
- Expressing pity; as, a pitying eye, glance, or word.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Anyte III 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, Anyte III, in Lustra (1916), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #55564, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/pound-lustra/anyte-iii.html, id L01331.
Form and metre
Anyte III is 4 lines in a single stanza. The lines average 13.5 syllables. 2 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending.
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. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| A sad and great evil is the expectation of death-- | 14 | ····/˘···˘/˘·· |
| And there are also the inane expenses of the funeral; | 16 | ···/˘·˘/˘/˘··/˘˘ |
| Let us therefore cease from pitying the dead | 11 | ······/˘˘·· |
| For after death there comes no other calamity. | 13 | ·······/˘˘/˘˘ |
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.