Francesca
Francesca - meaning Summary
Recovering a Lost Solitude
Pound presents a speaker mourning how a private encounter has been exposed and trivialized by public chatter. The poem contrasts an intimate moment — someone arriving "out of the night" with flowers — with the intrusion of crowds and ordinary places. The speaker longs for removal of worldly noise, imagining the mind flooded or the world dried away so the beloved can be found again, restored to solitude and original presence.
Read Complete AnalysesYou came in out of the night And there were flowers in your hand, Now you will come out of a confusion of people, Out of a turmoil of speech about you. I who have seen you amid the primal things Was angry when they spoke your name IN ordinary places. I would that the cool waves might flow over my mind, And that the world should dry as a dead leaf, Or as a dandelion see-pod and be swept away, So that I might find you again, Alone.
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