An Immorality
An Immorality - fact Summary
First Printed in a Lume Spento
This short poem appears in Ezra Pound’s early collection A Lume Spento. It juxtaposes private affection and leisure against public achievement: the speaker prefers intimate love and idleness to heroic deeds that win public belief. The tone is declarative and slightly defiant, presenting personal feeling as the true worth of life rather than fame or grand actions. Its placement in Pound’s debut collection signals his early interest in concise, assertive lyric.
Read Complete AnalysesSing we for love and idleness, Naught else is worth the having. Though I have been in many a land, There is naught else in living. And I would rather have my sweet, Though rose-leaves die of grieving, Than do high deeds in Hungary To pass all men's believing.
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