EXULTATIONS OF EZRA POUND LONDON ELKIN MATHEWS, VIGO STREET M CM IX _I am an eternal spirit and the things I_ _make are but ephemera, yet I endure:_ _Yea, and the little earth crumbles beneath_ _our feet and we endure._ TO CARLOS TRACY CHESTER "_amicitiae longaevitate_" I have to thank the Editors of the _English Review_ and the _Evening Standard_ and _St. James's Gazette_ for permission to include in this volume certain poems which originally appeared in those papers. CONTENTS GUIDO INVITES YOU THUS NIGHT LITANY SANDALPHON SESTINA: ALTAFORTE PIERE VIDAL OLD BALLAD OF THE GOODLY FERE HYMN III FROM THE LATIN OF FLAMINIUS SESTINA FOR YSOLT PORTRAIT (FROM "LA MÈRE INCONNUE") FAIR HELENA LAUDANTES DECEM AUX BELLES DE LONDRES FRANCESCA GREEK EPIGRAM COLUMBUS' EPITAPH PLOTINUS ON HIS OWN FACE IN A GLASS HISTRION THE EYES DEFIANCE SONG NEL BIANCHEGGIAR NILS LYKKE A SONG OF THE VIRGIN MOTHER PLANH FOR THE YOUNG ENGLISH KING ALBA INNOMINATA PLANH EXULTATIONS Guido invites you thus[1] "Lappo I leave behind and Dante too, Lo, I would sail the seas with thee alone! Talk me no love talk, no bought-cheap fiddl'ry, Mine is the ship and thine the merchandise, All the blind earth knows not th' emprise Whereto thou calledst and whereto I call. Lo, I have seen thee bound about with dreams, Lo, I have known thy heart and its desire; Life, all of it, my sea, and all men's streams Are fused in it as flames of an altar fire! Lo, thou hast voyaged not! The ship is mine." [Footnote 1: The reference is to Dante's sonnet "Guido vorrei...."] Night Litany O Dieu, purifiez nos cœurs! purifiez nos cœurs! Yea the lines hast thou laid unto me in pleasant places, And the beauty of this thy Venice hast thou shown unto me Until is its loveliness become unto me a thing of tears. O God, what great kindness have we done in times past and forgotten it, That thou givest this wonder unto us, O God of waters? O God of the night What great sorrow Cometh unto us, That thou thus repayest us Before the time of its coming? O God of silence, Purifiez nos cœurs, Purifiez nos cœurs, For we have seen The glory of the shadow of the likeness of thine handmaid, Yea, the glory of the shadow of thy Beauty hath walked Upon the shadow of the waters In this thy Venice. And before the holiness Of the shadow of thy handmaid Have I hidden mine eyes, O God of waters.