Salvationists
Come, my songs, let us speak of perfection--We shall get ourselves rather disliked.
Ah yes, my songs, let us resurrectThe very excellent term Rusticus.Let us apply it in all its opprobriumTo those to whom it applies.And you may decline to make them immortal.For we shall consider them and their stateIn delicateOpulent silence.
Come, my songs,Let us take arms against this sea of stupidities--Beginning with Mumpodorus;And against this sea of vulgarities--Beginning with Nimmim;And against this sea of imbeciles--All the Bulmenian literati.
Words in this poem
- shall v. i.
- To owe; to be under obligation for. [OE. shal, schal, imp. sholde, scholde, AS. scal, sceal, I am obliged, imp. scolde, sceolde, inf. sculan; akin to OS. skulan, pres. skal, imp. skolda, D. zullen,]
- resurrect v. t.
- To take from the grave; to disinter. [See Resurrection.]
- literati n.
- Learned or literary men. See Literatus. [See Literatus.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Salvationists 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, Salvationists, in Lustra (1916), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #55564, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/pound-lustra/salvationists.html, id L25341.
Form and metre
Salvationists is 17 lines in 3 stanzas.
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 -----AA- resurrect · rusticus · opprobrium · applies · immortal · stateA · delicateA · silence
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 speak of perfection-- | 10 | ·······˘/˘ |
| We shall get ourselves rather disliked. | 10 | ···˘˘//˘˘/ |
| Ah yes, my songs, let us resurrect | 9 | ·······˘/ |
| The very excellent term Rusticus. | 10 | ·/˘/˘˘···· |
| Let us apply it in all its opprobrium | 12 | ··˘/····˘/˘˘ |
| To those to whom it applies. | 7 | ·····˘/ |
| And you may decline to make them immortal. | 11 | ···˘/···˘/˘ |
| For we shall consider them and their state | 10 | ···˘/˘···· |
| In delicate | 4 | ·/˘˘ |
| Opulent silence. | 5 | /˘˘/˘ |
| Come, my songs, | 3 | ··· |
| Let us take arms against this sea of stupidities-- | 13 | ·········˘/˘˘ |
| Beginning with Mumpodorus; | 8 | ˘/˘····· |
| And against this sea of vulgarities-- | 10 | ······˘/˘˘ |
| Beginning with Nimmim; | 6 | ˘/˘··· |
| And against this sea of imbeciles-- | 9 | ······/˘˘ |
| All the Bulmenian literati. | 9 | ······˘/˘ |
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.