Joseph White

Curmano
English p. 4
3/16/16
Ezra Pound - The Flame
1. Tis not a game that plays at mates and mating,
2. Provene knew;
3. 'Tis not a game of barter, lands and houses,
4. Provene knew.
5. We who are wise beyond your dream of wisdom,
6. Drink our immortal moments; we 'pass through'.
7. We have gone forth beyond your bonds and borders,
8. Provene knew;
9. And all the tales of Oisin say but this:
10. That man doth pass the net of days and hours.
11. Where time is shrivelled down to time's seed corn
12. We of the Ever-living, in that light
13. Meet through our veils and whisper, and of love.
14. O smoke and shadow of a darkling world,
14. These, and the rest, and all the rest we knew.
14. 'Tis not a game that plays at mates and mating,
14. 'Tis not a game of barter, lands and houses,
14. 'Tis not 4of days and nights' and troubling years,
14. Of cheeks grown sunken and glad hair gone gray;
14. There is the subtler music, the clear light
14. Where time burns back about th' eternal embers.
14. We are not shut from all the thousand heavens:
14. Lo, there are many gods whom we have seen,
14. Folk of unearthly fashion, places splendid,
14. Bulwarks of beryl and of chrysoprase.

26. Sapphire Benacus, in thy mists and thee

26. Nature herself's turned metaphysical,
26. Who can look on that blue and not believe?

29. Thou hooded opal, thou eternal pearl,

29. O thou dark secret with a shimmering floor,
29. Through all thy various mood I know thee mine;
29. If I have merged my soul, or utterly
29. Am solved and bound in, through aught here on earth,
29. There canst thou find me, O thou anxious thou,
29. Who callst about my gates for some lost me;
29. I say my soul flowed back, became translucent.
29. Search not my lips, O Love, let go my hands,
29. This thing that moves as man is no more mortal.
29. If thou hast seen my shade sans character,
29. If thou hast seen that mirror of all moments,
29. That glass to all things that o'ershadow it,
29. Call not that mirror me, for I have slipped
29. Your grasp, I have eluded.
The Flame, by Ezra Pound tells a fiery tale of an absent and unnamed idea/ place, that
is not affected by the rules of time or society. It tells of how all people are made equal and that
we should not strive for worldly possessions.
Apostrophe is the most prominent poetic device in the poem. The whole poem is an
apostrophe to The Flame, a metaphor to a person's soul, which keeps burning after they die
and is set free from boundaries of our worldly desires. We of the Ever-living, in that light Meet
through our veils and whisper, and of love (Pound 12). He says that all souls (of people) are
equal and they all end up in the same place or at the same level in the end. People should not
focus on having possessions in life or even having life, because there are more and better things
afterwards, All the tales of Oisin tell of this (Pound 9). The tales of the legendary Irish poet
warrior, Oisin tell of a magical island called Tr na ng, a place where people do not age or get
injured, basically heaven on earth. Pound is saying that this place is like (or is) where your soul
goes or lives on after you die. Ezra Pound visited Provence France before writing this poem.
Provene knew (Pound 2) is repeated several times throughout the poem. This repetition shows

how Provene knew (what to do and how to do it). Provene (France), to Pound was like Tr
na ng, like Heaven, it was the ideal place, it was perfect in his eyes.
Pound uses the tone of his poem to effectively communicate his message. The whole
poem has a dark and mysterious tone, but there is a subtle undertone that begins as a negative,
questioning, kind of condescending one, O smoke and shadow of a darkling world (Pound 14),
Of cheeks grown sunken and glad hair gone gray (Pound 19), Where time burns back
(Pound 21). Pound uses this to emphasise the imperfections of our world and society. In the third
stanza it shifts to a confident, successful, hopeful one, ...places splendid, Bulwarks of beryl and
of chrysoprase. Sapphire Benacus, in thy mists and thee (Pound 24-26), Who can look on that
blue and not believe? (Pound 28), Your grasp, I have eluded (Pound 43). Shifting to the
lighter tone shows that despite our flaws, there can still be a bright future. These all help support
the theme that the overall goal of man should not be wealth, possessions, or even life, that there
is more after.
The Flame, by Ezra Pound is a poem about the mysterious idea that is not affected by
the rules of time or society. Throughout the poem Pound says that there are rules in our
materialistic society that we dont need and we should ignore, ...we 'pass through'. We have
gone forth beyond your bonds and borders Call not that mirror me, for I have slipped Your
grasp, I have eluded (Pound 6,7,42)The poem tells how when it comes down the roots of a
person that all of us are really equal and that we should never strive to be greater than each other.

Works Cited
Ezra Pound - Poem. "The Flame Poem." Poemhunter.com. N.p., 1 Apr. 2010. Web.
08 Apr. 2016.