Grace Before Song by Ezra Pound

                                                                                                           

Grace Before Song by Ezra Pound

Lord God of heaven that with mercy fight 

Th'alternate prayer wheel of the night and light

Eternal hath to thee, and in whose sight

Our days as rain drops in the sea surge fall,

As bright white drops upon a leaden sea

Grant so my songs to this grey folk may be:

As drops that dream and gleam and falling catch the sun

Evan'scent mirrors every opal one

Of such his splendor as their compass is,

So, bold My Songs, seek ye such death as this.

Outline 

Introduction (early life and family of the writer, writing career, writing style, major works, death)  

Background of Poem

Explanation – Stanza Wise 

Themes in the Poem 

Literary Devices in the Poem

Critical Analysis of the Poem 

Conclusion (relation of the poem with our lives/society)

 

Introduction of Poet

His full name is “Ezra Weston Loomis Pound” and is mostly known as “Ezra Pound” in the literary world. He was born on the 30th of October in 1885 in Hailey. His father was Loomis Pound, a federal land office official, and his mother was Isabel Pound. He was only a child so he enjoyed the bliss of childhood. Unfortunately, his father died in 1942, and his mother left him in 1948.

Ezra Pound, a leading figure of the 20th century, successfully established his career; first as a poet and later as a critic. He became a poet at a very young age in 1896 in Jenkintown Times-Chronicle. During his educational career, he studied nine languages including, Spanish, French, Old English Romance languages, and the Provencal dialect. The knowledge of these languages added colour to his unique writing style. During his stay in America, he compiled his first poetry book, A Lume Spento, but failed to get it published.

Ezra pound stands among the most influential figures of the 20th century. His concise writing style and unique ideas added a lot to the world of English literature. This versatility can be seen in his epic poem “Cantos” which exhibits a mixture of essays, elegies, hymns, and satire. Marked by heavy use of imagery, symbolism, free verse, and dramatic lyricism, his writings won global recognition. He was also the co-founder of the imagism movement that emphasizes the use of precise language to craft sharp and clear images in poetry. The use of Haiku, a Japanese poetic form and ideogrammic method, and the Chinese poetic form made his writing stand unique. Since he is considered the most important modernist poet, his pieces fail to follow conventional forms and discursiveness typical of Victorian and Romantic poets. Rather, he believes that the individuality of a poet is expressed better through free verse. The recurring themes in most of his writings are memoirs, culture, art, society, governance, and economics.

Best poems: He was an outstanding poet. Some of his best poems include: “In a Station of the Metro”, “The Cantos”, “The Seafarer”, “Ballad of the Goodly Fere”, “Hugh Selwyn Mauberley” and “The Return.” Other Works: Besides poetry, he tried his hands at prose and nonfiction. Some of them include ABC of Economics, Digest of the Analects, Instigations, Literary Essays, and Make it New.

Ezra Pound, a great writer, and critic, faced severe health issues during the last eleven years of his life. Despite facing these issues, he never gave up on life and travelled to Dublin, New York, and London from 1965 to 1967. In 1972, he became completely bedridden and died of an intestinal blockage on the 1st of November 1972. Ezra was buried at Isola di San Michele.

Background of Poem

This poem was written in 1920 - after World War I, so it has more association with people who suffered from the war, especially people remaining war in a traumatic situation. After the war the poetry became experimental that’s why its focus is on the mental condition of humans who lost their family members, friends and other relatives. To some extent, this poetry talks about the hopes which are carried by conscious and struggling people in society.    

Explanation of poem  

This very stanza begins with the hymn of God and the poet calls God as merciful as He is dealing with everyone so gently. Further, it says that the light of day comes after the night and their wheel completes itself because of the prayers done for it. Moreover, the poet declares that God is immortal and eternal forever, so in front of Him or in His sight our days are like rain that drops in the falling large sea wave. 

In the second stanza, the poet wishes that as bright and white and fresh drops of rain fall upon the sea especially the leaden sea having darkness. Similarly, God just grant or give my poetry such a power that affects the people who will ever read it. 

In the last stanza, the poet wishes that like drops which have dreams of rising and want to reach the level of the sun and also urge to glow. Apart from it, he says as mirrors and opal stones absorb light and reflect it as well as the gleam. So, the poet wishes to have such a brilliant power in his poetry and words that can influence other people in their lives. Finally, he demands that the death of drops make them gleam and rise, similarly, his poetry should be like this as this death of entity is not an ordinary one. 

Important Themes

Concept of Religion 

Lack of development

Hope 

Struggle

Influence of War

Good People of Society 

Literary Devices in Poem

This poem by Ezra Pound has some literary devices. i.e. 

Personification is used two times in the poem. 

Simile (resemblance between things of different kinds by like or as)

Imagery (to make a mental image of things or events)

Rhyming (correspondence in the sounds of two or more lines especially final sounds)

Antithesis (use of opposite words in close displacement)

Assonance (repetition of a vowel sound within a sentence)

Hyperbole (use of exaggeration to lay emphasis) 

1. Personification

We can find personification in the following line; “drops that dream and gleam and falling catch the sun”. So, in this line poet has given drop living ability, i.e. dreaming, which is the quality of humans. 

Another example of personification can be found in the poem's last line. i.e. “So, bold My Songs, seek ye such death as this”. 

In the above line, the poet also gives human quality (death) to his songs.

2. Simile

The next literary device used in this poem is the simile.

So, in the following line, we can find a simile, “our days as raindrops in the sea surge fall”. Thus, it makes a resemblance between days and drops with the help of ‘as’. 

3. Imagery

There is imagery as well in the following line.

“raindrops in the sea surge fall”, so we can see imagery clearly in this line.  

4. Rhyming

 Apart from other devices, there is a concept of the rhyming scheme as well. Like  

dight-light-sight ---- in the first stanza    

sea-be ------------ in the second stanza       

sun-one ------- in the last stanza     

is-this------------ in the last stanza    

5. Antithesis

 This poem has only one antithesis. i.e. ‘night and light’, which is used in the second line. 

6. Assonance

There is only one vowel sound that is used a couple of times within the whole poem. i.e. e-sound.

7. Hyperbole

There is an example of hyperbole as well that is given in the following line; “As bright light drops upon a leaden sea”. In this line, we can see the poet is emphasizing the ‘drops’ by saying ‘bright’ plus ‘white’.   

Critical Analysis of the Poem 

As far as possible having a deep and critical view of this poem, we may come to know that this literary piece has multiple aspects for analysis. Like it has concepts of symbolism, complexity, and novelty with societal-based problems. 

The first point for analysis is the usage of several symbols in this poem. For instance, night symbolizes a harsh and sad time of life, light shows prosperity in life, surge represents ups and downs of life, prayer denotes the struggle of the victim, white refers to the purity of people, and leaden sea pertains to the unconscious nation or people and finally sun in the poem point out opportunity available for people. Moreover, with these symbols used in the poem poet portrays different situations faced by humans in their lives. Like, as a person seeks a certain goal in life with struggle and having faith in God, the same concept is symbolized in this literary text with the help of different symbols.

  

The second item that needs concentration for analysis is the of complexity the poem. So, poetry has developed complex associations between several things. Like the leaden sea for the lazy nation and lazy humanity, similarly, we have associations of bright white light with hopes of ordinary people. Furthermore, there are some difficult words in the poem that enhance its complexity, like evan’scent and opal. Apart from it some words from Old English also make it complex to understand, like Th’, hath, thee, and ye etc. 

The third reason for deep analysis is the novelty and new experiments done in this poetry, i.e. the concept of God, along with the weakness of mankind. It has initial lines that glorify God’s nature and considers Him as merciful and a provider of all wishes. So, it shows the poet’s attraction toward religion and God, therefore, we can suppose this poem is a hymn for God as well. In addition, the nobility of this poem can be seen in the content, as it focuses on human beings and their weakness to maintain humanity in the world. So, the poet has given a specific name of the leaden sea to the cruel people of the world. 

Last but not least aspect that requires deep attention is the problems within society, he has portrayed the struggles of some good people and their hopes and dreams to gain a particular place in society. Apart from it, he is also focusing that the people who remain after the war are trying to surpass their pain and painful memories. That’s why the poet is praying to God to fulfil his wishes to rise and glow so that he would be prosperous again. Eventually, Ezra Pound wants his poetry must be something that became the cause of motivating other people toward struggle and happy life.         

Conclusion (relation of the poem with our lives/society)

After reading this poem we can assume that Ezra Pound has written this literary piece of art for contemporary society as well. Because it can reflect the mentality of people, situations, and struggles of good people in a society to make worthy their lives. 

Furthermore, it gives a reflection on hopes that a modern man might carry. It may be in the form of struggle which is done by people or maybe in the form of prayer that a religious person performs in his/her life. This piece of literature influences our religious beliefs and also becomes cause to concentrate on the presence of God, that’s why it can easily enhance our trust in God to change every situation. So being a hymn, it can be associated with our religious aspect of life.   

Moreover, this poem motivates our lives to continuously struggle and never give up. Because goals are achieved after a long battle with hurdles as these are part of human life. Since problems are the same in every era and every period of time so this poem renders us a fine path to deal with these situations. i.e. faith and struggle, which is very necessary for this modern society. 

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