Further Instructions
Come, my songs, let us express our baser passions,Let us express our envy of the man with a steady joband no worry about the future.You are very idle, my songs.I fear you will come to a bad end.You stand about in the streets,You loiter at the corners and bus-stopsYou do next to nothing at all.
You do not even express our inner nobilities,You will come to a very bad end.
And I?I have gone half cracked,I have talked to you so much thatI almost see you about me,Insolent little beasts, shameless, devoid of clothing!
But you, newest song of the lot,You are not old enough to have done much mischief,I will get you a green coat out of ChinaWith dragons worked upon it,I will get you the scarlet silk trousersFrom the statue of the infant Christ at Santa Maria Novella,Lest they say we are lacking in taste,Or that there is no caste in this family.
Words in this poem
- cracked a.
- Coarsely ground or broken; as, cracked wheat.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Further Instructions 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, Further Instructions, in Lustra (1916), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #55564, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/pound-lustra/further-instructions.html, id L01263.
Form and metre
Further Instructions is 23 lines in 4 verse paragraphs. It is unrhymed, as far as the pronouncing dictionary can tell. 84% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 9.8 syllables. 9 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 22% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
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.
Rhyme words, stanza by stanza
The word that ends each line, lettered by the rhyme it makes; a dash is a line whose rhyme the dictionary could not confirm.
- 3 A--A- iA · cracked · that · meA · clothing
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Come, my songs, let us express our baser passions, | 13 | ·····˘//˘/˘/˘ |
| Let us express our envy of the man with a steady job | 16 | ··˘//˘/˘·····/˘· |
| and no worry about the future. | 9 | ··/˘···/˘ |
| You are very idle, my songs. | 8 | ··/˘/˘·· |
| I fear you will come to a bad end. | 9 | ········· |
| You stand about in the streets, | 7 | ······· |
| You loiter at the corners and bus-stops | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| You do next to nothing at all. | 8 | ····/˘·· |
| You do not even express our inner nobilities, | 15 | ···/˘˘//˘/˘˘/˘˘ |
| You will come to a very bad end. | 9 | ·····/˘·· |
| And I? | 2 | ·· |
| I have gone half cracked, | 5 | ····· |
| I have talked to you so much that | 8 | ········ |
| I almost see you about me, | 8 | ·/······ |
| Insolent little beasts, shameless, devoid of clothing! | 13 | /˘˘/˘·/˘˘/·/˘ |
| But you, newest song of the lot, | 8 | ··/˘···· |
| You are not old enough to have done much mischief, | 12 | ····˘/····/˘ |
| I will get you a green coat out of China | 11 | ·········/˘ |
| With dragons worked upon it, | 7 | ·/˘···· |
| I will get you the scarlet silk trousers | 10 | ·····/˘·/˘ |
| From the statue of the infant Christ at Santa Maria Novella, | 18 | ··/···/˘··/˘˘/˘˘/˘ |
| Lest they say we are lacking in taste, | 9 | ·····/˘·· |
| Or that there is no caste in this family. | 11 | ········/˘˘ |
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.