Like Gina said in her blog, I'm not very good at analyzing poems. This may seem totally crazy but when I read In the Old Age of the Soul by Ezra Pound it made me think of War Veterans. I know, you are probably wondering why I think this, well here goes:
"I do not choose to dream; there cometh on me
Some strange old lust for deeds."
Back in the old days as I say, people did not always volunteer for the wars. I feel like I did not choose to dream, to me is like saying I did not choose to go to war, but I did it because it's a good deed and I am helping my country.
"As to the nerveless hand of some old warrior
The sword-hilt or the war-worn wonted helmet
Brings momentary life and long-fled cunning,"
This says to me that this verse is talking alot about how the soldiars had long hard days. They sat in the trenches holding there guns. They sit weary thinking about there next move. They may be sitting and listening to their commander talking about their stratagy to defeat the enemy. The "nerveless hand" makes me think of nerves of steel. Soldiars I'm sure, begin to harden, at least their nerves do anyway. Through all the things that they see they almost have to steel themselves against it.
"Forgetful of the council of elders,
Forgetful that who rules doth no more battle,
Forgetful that such might no more cleaves to him
So doth he flame again toward valiant doing."
This part I kind of disagree with. I don't think a soldiar, especially those war vets will never forget what they saw and what they went through. I have read so many stories and have talked to alot of people who were in Vietnam and Korea, and many of them had and still have flashbacks. It seems like they never get over the horrors of the war. I do agree with the last line though. I think that each and every one of those war vets knows that he was fighting for his country and that he was doing the best he could do, and be the best he could be.
Trackback Link: http://blogs.setonhill.edu/mt/mt-tb.cgi/2100">Jerz: Am Lit II (EL 267): Pound, In the Old Age of the Soul
Posted by SueMyers at March 1, 2005 9:58 PMSue, take a look at the instrutions again on this page http://blogs.setonhill.edu/DennisJerz/EL267/2005/007014.php .
1) Read all of the section that says "HOW DO I FIND THE URL", and
2) note that once you've found the proper URL, you need to create a link to it (that's described in the next section).
If that doesn't work, you can just create a comment on the proper page, and include the URL of the entry that you want people to find. (Your recent comment aksing for help included the URL to your blog home page, not to an individual entry that contains the content.
All term, I have had office hours where I've invited people to come if they need help for any reason... I still have another office hour scheduled at 2pm today.
Posted by: Dennis G. Jerz at March 2, 2005 8:53 AMWhoops, sorry, that should be 1pm, though if you come right at 2 I'll still see you.
Posted by: Dennis G. Jerz at March 2, 2005 9:59 AMGee thanks for commenting on my blog, I guess everyone else deserves a nice comment but I get some remark about how dumb I am because I can't do the stupid trackback, oh yeah, by the way, I know what a url is thank you very much, Considering that I have been making links to stuff since last year,sorry all of us can't be computer genious. Sorry my blogs aren't as special as everyone elses. I guess we all can't be perfect.
By the way, I'm being sarcastic. *rolls eyes*
Hey Sue, I don't think you're crazy for thinking of Vets when you read this poem! I definetly got a little bit of that feeling when I read and re-read it, too.
Gina said on her blog about the old man feeling bad for himself because he can't joust with the younger men. Well, I think this guy should stop having his pity-party and get up to give these young'ins a lesson or two! He could probably teach them more about jousting than an instructor with no war experience (if we're sticking with the Vet analogy). Nice thought--I like that you went outside of just what Pound gives in the poem as concrete ideas. Way to be!
Posted by: Karissa at March 2, 2005 9:45 PM