Tenzone
Will people accept them?(i.e. these songs).As a timorous wench from a centaur(or a centurion),Already they flee, howling in terror.
Will they be touched with the verisimilitudes?Their virgin stupidity is untemptable.I beg you, my friendly critics,Do not set about to procure me an audience.
I mate with my free kind upon the crags;the hidden recessesHave heard the echo of my heels,in the cool light,in the darkness.
Words in this poem
- centaur n.
- A fabulous being, represented as half man and half horse.
- centurion n.
- A military officer who commanded a minor division of the Roman army; a captain of a century. [L. centurio, fr. centuria; cf. F. centurion. See Century.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Tenzone 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, Tenzone, in Lustra (1916), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #55564, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/pound-lustra/tenzone.html, id L01246.
Form and metre
Tenzone is 14 lines in 3 verse paragraphs. It is unrhymed, as far as the pronouncing dictionary can tell. 81% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.1 syllables. 6 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 14% 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.
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Will people accept them? | 6 | ·/˘˘/· |
| (i.e. these songs). | 4 | ···· |
| As a timorous wench from a centaur | 10 | ··/˘˘···/· |
| (or a centurion), | 6 | ··˘/˘˘ |
| Already they flee, howling in terror. | 10 | ˘/˘··/˘·/˘ |
| Will they be touched with the verisimilitudes? | 12 | ·······˘˘/˘· |
| Their virgin stupidity is untemptable. | 12 | ·/˘˘/˘˘····· |
| I beg you, my friendly critics, | 8 | ····/˘/˘ |
| Do not set about to procure me an audience. | 13 | ······˘/··/˘˘ |
| I mate with my free kind upon the crags; | 10 | ·········· |
| the hidden recesses | 6 | ·/˘/˘˘ |
| Have heard the echo of my heels, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| in the cool light, | 4 | ···· |
| in the darkness. | 4 | ··/˘ |
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.