Surgit Fama
Surgit Fama - meaning Summary
Spring Returns, Rumor Follows
Pound's short poem evokes a seasonal and religious renewal: Kore (Persephone) returns, rites and gardens on Delos revive, and the altar and chant tremble with repeated life. At the same time Hermes, a trickster of speech, hovers to reshape and spread the speaker's words as rumor. The poem frames a tension between sacred restoration and the instability of language, ending with an urgent call to speak the truth precisely.
Read Complete AnalysesThere is a truce among the gods, Kore is seen in the North Skirting the blue-gray sea In gilded and russet mantle. The corn has again it's mother and she, Leuconoe, That failed never women, Fails not the earth now. The tricksome Hermes is here; He moves behind me Eager to catch my words, Eager to spread them with rumour; To set upon them his change Crafty and subtle; To alter them to his purpose; But do thou speak true, even to the letter: ‘Once more in Delos, once more is the altar a-quiver. Once more is the chant heard. Once more are the never abandoned gardens Full of gossip and old tales.’
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