Tempora
Tempora - meaning Summary
Petition for Poetic Print
Pound presents a whimsical scene where a Dryad in the speaker’s courtyard invokes mythic names while pleading, May my poems be printed this week?
The poem mixes classical figures (Tamuz, Pan) with a modern, anxious wish for publication, turning divine invocation into a comic, human request. It compresses the tension between artistic aspiration and the longing for public recognition into a brief, ironic moment.
Io! Io! Tamuz! The Dryad staiids in my court-yard With plaintive, querulous crying. (Tamuz. Io! Tamuz!) Oh, no, she is not crying: 'Tamuz.' She says, 'May my poems be printed this week? The god Pan is afraid to ask you, May my poems be printed this week?'
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