Ezra Pound: Poems Lesson Plan

These poems by Ezra Pound are all from his early career (written between 1912-1920). Pound would go on to write much more poetry, most famously his Cantos, a 180 part unfinished epic that he wrote from 1930 until 1969. That being said, this collection aims to introduce students to many of his most central ideas and beliefs that pervade the rest of his oeuvre. “Portrait d’une Femme,” taking up a title similarly used by Joyce, Williams, and Henry James (who originated it in his novel, The Portrait of a Lady), is a short exploration of a familiar trope: a poet and his fascination with a mysterious female muse. “A Virginal,” a sonnet, touches on purity, sin, love, and sexuality, all of...