The Three Poets
Candidia has taken a new loverAnd three poets are gone into mourning.The first has written a long elegy to “Chloris,”To “Chloris chaste and cold,” his “only Chloris.”The second has written a sonnetupon the mutability of woman,And the third writes an epigram to Candidia.
Words in this poem
- elegy n.
- A mournful or plaintive poem; a funereal song; a poem of lamentation.
- sonnet n.
- A short poem, -- usually amatory. [F., fr. It. sonetto, fr. suono a sound, a song, fr. L. sonus a sound. See Sound noise.]
- mutability n.
- The quality of being mutable, or subject to change or alteration, either in form, state, or essential character; susceptibility of change; changeableness; inconstancy; variation. [L. mutabilitas: cf. F. mutabilité.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Three Poets 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 Three Poets, in Lustra (1916), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #55564, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/pound-lustra/the-three-poets.html, id L01303.
Form and metre
The Three Poets is 7 lines in a single stanza. The metre is iambic hexameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 80%). 93% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.9 syllables. 6 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending.
See other poems in iambic hexameter.
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.
- 1 --AA--- lover · mourning · chlorisA · chlorisA · sonnet · woman · candidia
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. Read against iambic hexameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Candidia has taken a new lover | 10 | ····/˘··/˘ |
| And three poets are gone into mourning. | 10 | ··/˘····/˘ |
| The first has written a long elegy to “Chloris,” | 13 | ···/˘··/˘˘·/˘ |
| To “Chloris chaste and cold,” his “only Chloris.” | 11 | ·/˘····/˘/˘ |
| The second has written a sonnet | 9 | ·/˘·/˘·/˘ |
| upon the mutability of woman, | 11 | ·········/˘ |
| And the third writes an epigram to Candidia. | 12 | ·····/˘····· |
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.