Incapable of the least utterance or composition, Emendation, conservation of the "better tradition", Refinement of medium, elimination of superfluities, August attraction or concentration.
Nothing in brief, but maudlin confession Irresponse to human aggression, Amid the precipitation, down-float Of insubstantial manna Lifting the faint susurrus Of his subjective hosannah.
Non-esteem of self-styled "his betters" Leading, as he well knew, To his final Exclusion from the world of letters.
SCATTERED Moluccas Not knowing, day to day, The first day's end, in the next noon; The placid water Unbroken by the Simoon;
Thick foliage Placid beneath warm suns, Tawn fore-shores Washed in the cobalt of oblivions;
Or through dawn-mist The grey and rose Of the juridical Flamingoes;
A consciousness disjunct, Being but this overblotted Series Of intermittences;
Coracle of Pacific voyages, The unforecasted beach: Then on an oar Read this:
"I was And I no more exist; Here drifted An hedonist."
LUINI in porcelain! The grand piano Utters a profane Protest with her clear soprano.
The sleek head emerges From the gold-yellow frock As Anadyomene in the opening Pages of Reinach.
Honey-red, closing the face-oval A basket-work of braids which seem as if they were Spun in King Minos' hall From metal, or intractable amber;
The face-oval beneath the glaze, Bright in its suave bounding-line, as Beneath half-watt rays The eyes turn topaz.
THIS EDITION OF 200 COPIES IS THE THIRD BOOK OF THE OVID PRESS: WAS PRINTED BY JOHN RODKER: AND COMPLETED APRIL 23RD. 1920
15 Copies on Japan Vellum numbered 1-15 & not for sale. 20 Signed copies numbered 16-35 165 Unsigned copies numbered 36-200
End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Hugh Selwyn Mauberley, by Ezra Pound