Mr. Housman's Message
Ezra Pound 1885 (Hailey) – 1972 (Venice)
O woe, woe,
People are born and die,
We also shall be dead pretty soon
Therefore let us act as if we were
dead already.
The bird sits on the hawthorn tree
But he dies also, presently.
Some lads get hung, and some get shot.
Woeful is this human lot.
Woe! woe, etcetera. . . .
London is a woeful place,
Shropshire is much pleasanter.
Then let us smile a little space
Upon fond nature's morbid grace.
Oh, Woe, woe, woe, etcetera. . . .
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on May 02, 2023
- 24 sec read
- 593 Views
Quick analysis:
Scheme | XXXAB BBCCD EAEED |
---|---|
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 426 |
Words | 81 |
Stanzas | 3 |
Stanza Lengths | 5, 5, 5 |
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"Mr. Housman's Message" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 9 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/13300/mr.-housman's-message>.
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