“The River Merchant’s wife: A letter” By Ezra Pound
While
my hair was cut straight across my forehead [she was little]
I
played about the front gate, pulling the flowers
You
came by on bamboo stilts, playing horse
[Bamboo
is the hollow wood people make pipes from. Stilts are long pieces of wood people
stand over to be taller. Usually used in circus performances. And playing horse
means he was walking over the bamboo stilts acting like a horse. He was kind of
young too]
You
walked about my seats, playing with a blue plum
[Plum
is a kind of fruit and it is the second indication of the garden]
And
we went on living in the village of Chokan
Two
small people, without dislike or suspicion
[Times
moves on and since they were still young, they are pure and innocent, no hatred
or thinking bad about people.]
At
fourteen I married My Lord you
[She
married him at 14, and calls him that out of respect]
I
never laughed being bashful [shy]
Lowering
my head I looked at the wall
[It
is an act of being bashful]
Called
to a thousand times, I never looked back.
[He
calls to her, but she is shy she never answered him. She thinks it’s weird
because he was the same person she used to play with when she was young]
At
fifteen I stopped scowling
[A
bitter frown. It means, that at the age of fifteen, she stopped being mad about
this arranged marriage]
I
desired my dust to be mingled with yours
Forever
and ever and ever
[After
dying and burning them, she wants them to mix her ashes with that of her
husbands’. To be together forever]
Why
should I climb the lookout?
[I
was happy then, why should I have had to be cautious or careful? Why should I
anticipate what was going to happen?]
At
sixteen you departed, [you went
away when I was 16 years old]
You
went into far Ku-to-yen, by the river of swirling eddies
[It
means the vicious current, and she worries about loosing him to that current]
And
you have been gone five months
The
monkeys make sorrowful noise overhead
[Another
indication of the garden, but the monkeys are a symbol to her sorrow. Her
feelings towards the absence of her lover]
You
dragged your feet when you went out
[You
were obligated to go, you didn’t want too]
By
the gate now, the mosses are grown the different mosses
[They
are pleasant plants that grow over rocks in fresh springs. This Means that the
gate is by a spring]
Too
deep to clear them away [Time
passed!]
The
leaves fall early this autumn in the wind
The
paired butterflies are already yellow with August
[Symbolism
to the relationships of other people.]
Over
the grass in the West garden;
They
hurt me. I grow older
[She
envies them, the lovers together and she’s alone as time passes by]
If
you are coming down through the narrows of the river Kiang,
[It’s
when the river shortens in width, it is dangerous because the river is strong
and fast. She worries about him being lost in the narrows]
Please
let me know before hand
[Misses
him deeply]
And
I will come out to meet you
As
far Cho-fu-sa [A long distance]
Subject:
River-Merchant’s
Wife
Theme:
Missing a
loved one
Tone:
Longing
and desperate
Setting:
Country
house in a village in China, in Past time.
Speaker:
Merchant’s
Wife
Poet:
Ezra
Pound
A
little Description of the poem: The
writer had a childhood friend whome she married at 14. she wasn’t given a
choice, and she didn’t like it at first. However, she learned to love her
husband at the age of 15. a year later he had to travel somewhere. He wasn’t
given a choice as well and didn’t want to go. She talks about how she misses
him, loves him and would like it if he returns for her.
Style
of poem: It’s
a modern poem, does not rhyme. Lines do not match in length and it’s 6 verses