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 PM