The Condolence
A mis soledades voy,De mis soledades vengo,Porque por andar conmigoMi bastan mis pensamientos.Lope de Vega.
O my fellow sufferers, songs of my youth,A lot of asses praise you because you are “virile,”We, you, I! We are “Red Bloods”!Imagine it, my fellow sufferers--Our maleness lifts us out of the ruck,Who’d have foreseen it?
O my fellow sufferers, we went out under the trees,We were in especial bored with male stupidity.We went forth gathering delicate thoughts,Our “fantastikon” delighted to serve us.We were not exasperated with women,for the female is ductile.
And now you hear what is said to us:We are compared to that sort of personWho wanders about announcing his sexAs if he had just discovered it.Let us leave this matter, my songs,and return to that which concerns us.
Words in this poem
- lope v. i.
- To leap; to dance. [See Leap.]
- vega n.
- A brilliant star of the first magnitude, the brightest of those constituting the constellation Lyra. [Ar. w, properly, falling: cf. F. Wéga.]
- ruck n.
- A roc. Drayton.
- foreseen conj.
- , or (strictly) p. p. Provided; in case that; on condition that.
- went n.
- Course; way; path; journey; direction.
- delighted a.
- Endowed with delight.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Condolence 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, The Condolence, in Lustra (1916), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #55564, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/pound-lustra/the-condolence.html, id L01247.
Form and metre
The Condolence 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 9.1 syllables. 7 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 13% 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.
- 4 A----A usA · person · sex · it · songs · usA
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 mis soledades voy, | 5 | ··/·· |
| De mis soledades vengo, | 6 | ··/··· |
| Porque por andar conmigo | 7 | ······· |
| Mi bastan mis pensamientos. | 8 | ········ |
| Lope de Vega. | 4 | ··/˘ |
| O my fellow sufferers, songs of my youth, | 11 | ··/˘/˘˘···· |
| A lot of asses praise you because you are “virile,” | 13 | ···/˘······/˘ |
| We, you, I! We are “Red Bloods”! | 7 | ······· |
| Imagine it, my fellow sufferers-- | 10 | ˘/˘··/˘/˘˘ |
| Our maleness lifts us out of the ruck, | 11 | /˘········· |
| Who’d have foreseen it? | 5 | ···/· |
| O my fellow sufferers, we went out under the trees, | 14 | ··/˘/˘˘······· |
| We were in especial bored with male stupidity. | 13 | ···˘/˘···˘/˘˘ |
| We went forth gathering delicate thoughts, | 10 | ···/˘˘/˘˘· |
| Our “fantastikon” delighted to serve us. | 12 | /˘····˘/˘··· |
| We were not exasperated with women, | 11 | ···˘/˘·˘·/˘ |
| for the female is ductile. | 7 | ··/··/˘ |
| And now you hear what is said to us: | 9 | ········· |
| We are compared to that sort of person | 10 | ··˘/····/˘ |
| Who wanders about announcing his sex | 10 | ·/˘··˘/˘·· |
| As if he had just discovered it. | 9 | ·····˘/˘· |
| Let us leave this matter, my songs, | 8 | ····/˘·· |
| and return to that which concerns us. | 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.