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Analysis and comments on Portrait d'Une Femme by Ezra Pound

Comment 8 of 8, added on December 24th, 2010 at 11:04 PM.
Portrait

Your mind and you are our Sargasso Sea,
London has swept about you this score years
Sargasso Sea

— n
a calm area of the N Atlantic, between the Caribbean and the Azores. It
seems to me the Sargasso Sea is lucky to be if London was sweeping around
the sea. No! there is nothing! In the whole and all,
Nothing thats quite your own.
Yet this is you.
The Sargasso Sea is lucky London said there is nothing!

Sheryl Skoglund from United States
Comment 7 of 8, added on March 2nd, 2010 at 10:50 AM.

How could this be about Jean Rhys? It was written in 1912 - she wrote her
book in 1966. I doubt that she would take an extract of the opening line
of a poem insulting her and use it was a title for her book 5 decades
later.

mkj from United States
Comment 6 of 8, added on December 6th, 2009 at 9:15 PM.
woman in Portrait d'Une Femme

According to an article published in 2002 in Modernisim/modernity 9.3 pp
389-405 by Rachel Blau DuPlessis, the woman is more likely Florence Farr
[Emery], an actress, a socialist, a theosophist, and a feminist. A more
general interpretation of it helps one's understanding of his muse and his
regard toward her.

Jessica from United States
Comment 5 of 8, added on February 22nd, 2009 at 10:52 AM.

portrait d'une femme is a very beautiful poem, however and opposetly of the
others, i think that Ezra Pound in this poem didn't discribe a woman but a
place, a monument or a statue.

nouhed from Algeria
Comment 4 of 8, added on January 23rd, 2009 at 12:50 PM.

I think the woman in question is a prostitute. She gives, and is given in
return, but is, ultimately, left with the discarded pieces of the lives of
others.

Robert Surgi from United States
Comment 3 of 8, added on February 6th, 2008 at 11:40 PM.

This is a great poem. He is definitely talking about someone he knew
closely. "seen you sit for hours," "your mind and you are our sargasso
sea." This person has no substantive thoughts of her own, but she can be an
interesting person to talk to because of her unique ("this is you") ability
to regurgitate gossip or tidbits of knowledge even with an incompetence
about the things she is forwarding on. She is ignorant, but is a social
tool. That is her purpose; uniquely her. The sargasso sea is known for its
floating pieces of ship debris and other flotsam, randomly acquired
throughout time. A great metaphor for this dull woman who seeks social
aptitude.

Ez from United States
Comment 2 of 8, added on January 24th, 2008 at 2:07 AM.

I think that it is more likely that the woman in this poem is Amy Lowell
who Pound had a falling out with after leaving the imagists. He found that
that style was stagnant and quickly being passed by, by the rest of the
world behaving in much the same way that the Sargossa Sea behaves.


David Montes from United States
Comment 1 of 8, added on February 22nd, 2006 at 5:49 PM.

This surprised me, a blank verse poem by Pound, whom I have always known
best as the author of the Cantos.
In the context in which it was presented to me, I am wondering if it was
actually written for Jean Rhys; certainly it suits her. Glorious blank
verse, which is especially what surprised and delighted me. It testifies
to the truth that an artist needs to learn his or her craft before
embarking on experimentation.

Junetta B. Gillespie from United States

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Information about Portrait d'Une Femme

Poet: Ezra Pound
Poem: Portrait d'Une Femme
Year: 1912
Added: Feb 20 2003
Viewed: 41020 times
Poem of the Day: Jul 18 2010


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