Summary Of Ezra Pound's Portrait D Une Femme

This essay analyzes Ezra Pound's poem ("Portrait D'un Femme") and T.S. Eliot's poem ("Portrait of a Lady") We will compare and contrast portraits of the different ladies. Firstly, it is necessary to state that these poems do not display a poetic construction of the female subject. We will appreciate several common aspects with respect to form, content and style undertaken by these two different poems. "Portrait D'une Femme" and "Portrait of a Lady" were written in the early period of Pound's and Eliot's careers. Taking into account the first poem, the influence of the Modernist movement might be clear in the title of the poem. Pound wrote the title in French so as to present the poem internationally. As Peter Nicholls explained in his article "The Poetics of Modernism", “Pound's own sense of an 'international tongue' is more robustly public in its assumption than an authentically modern poetry will be both polyglot and allusive" (55). Comparing to Eliot's poem, the"Portrait D'une Femme" is not a long poem, influenced by imagism (a movement in poetry that emphasizes the use of precise visual images). In line with this, we will see that Pound

She is portrayed rich and lucky on the surface but we can believe that she is a miserable lady like the Sargossa Sea. She is presented as an alternative for great minds. All of this can be seen in the following lines: "Great minds have sought you-lacking someone. / You have been second always. Tragical?" (6-7). She gathers only the intellectual and sophisticated people but at the same time she may be feel isolated. Another trait of her personality is patience: "Oh, you are patient, I have seen you sit / Hours, where something might have floated up, " (11-12) Here it is remarkable that the lady is characterized through the narrator's point of view, and the lady does not voice her