Modern Mag May 2014 | Page 22

A Girl-Ezra Pound The tree has entered my hands, The sap has ascended my arms, The tree has grown in my breast Downward, The branches grow out of me, like arms. Tree you are, Moss you are, You are violets with wind above them. A child - so high - you are, And all this is folly to the world.           People are destined for different things depending on when and where they are born. “A Girl”, is about a parents joy at the birth of their daughter. “The tree” is the newborn baby when the parent first holds them in their arms. The “tree” growing in the breast is a phrase for the baby growing into an adult. “Tree you are, Moss you are” means that the baby will grow and flourish into an important person in society. The baby can be akin to a sapling; a tiny sapling given enough time in a positive environment will grow into a powerful oak. The same goes for a person, if in a good environment a person can go from a tiny baby into a powerful, successful and important person. Pound realized that some people are given different opportunities based on what kind of situation that person was born into. Ezra Pound was a true example of this fact; if he wasn’t born an American he may not have had an opportunity to write poetry at all. People are destined for different things depending on when and where they were born. No matter if a person was born two hundred years ago or two years ago, that person can be great. What was considered greatness or success when Pound wrote may not still be great now but his words still have the same meaning.     -­‐Joseph  Boemher