Cantus Planus

Cantus Planus - fact Summary

Included in Personae

This short lyric by Ezra Pound appears in his collection Personae. It juxtaposes pastoral images—the black panther beneath a rose tree and curious fawns—with ecstatic Bacchic invocation: repeated cries of "Zagreus" and "Evoe, Baccho, O." The poem ends with the Latin refrain Hesper adest, signaling evening or an arrival. Its spare, incantatory structure links mythic ritual to natural detail in a compact, haunting snapshot.