Preference
It is true that you say the gods are more use to you than fairies,But for all that I have seen youon a high, white, noble horse,Like some strange queen in a story.
It is odd that you should be covered with long robesand trailing tendrils and flowers;It is odd that you should be changing your faceand resembling some other woman to plague me;It is odd that you should be hiding yourselfIn the cloud of beautiful women who do not concern me.
And I, who follow every seed-leaf upon the wind?You will say that I deserve this.
About this text
Preference 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, Preference, in Lustra (1916), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #55564, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/pound-lustra/preference.html, id L01257.
Form and metre
Preference is 12 lines in 3 stanzas. 87% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.9 syllables. 3 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 33% 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.
- 2 ---A-A robes · flowers · face · meA · yourself · meA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| It is true that you say the gods are more use to you than fairies, | 16 | ··············/˘ |
| But for all that I have seen you | 8 | ········ |
| on a high, white, noble horse, | 7 | ····/˘· |
| Like some strange queen in a story. | 8 | ······/˘ |
| It is odd that you should be covered with long robes | 12 | ·······/˘··· |
| and trailing tendrils and flowers; | 8 | ·/˘···/˘ |
| It is odd that you should be changing your face | 11 | ·······/˘·· |
| and resembling some other woman to plague me; | 13 | ·˘/˘˘·/˘/˘··· |
| It is odd that you should be hiding yourself | 11 | ·······/˘˘/ |
| In the cloud of beautiful women who do not concern me. | 15 | ····/˘˘/˘···˘/· |
| And I, who follow every seed-leaf upon the wind? | 14 | ···/˘/˘˘······ |
| You will say that I deserve this. | 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.