Ezra Pound\'s a Virginal Love

Ezra Pound's "A Virginal"

Love is always an inspiration - be it positive or negative. While love is beautiful, it can only remain pure and innocent until we act upon it. Our experiences pull love from the world of the unreal, or perfect, to the real, or the imperfect and Ezra Pound's poem, "A Virginal," captures these conflicting emotions in sonnet form.

By utilizing imagery, metaphor, and symbolism, Pound allows us to see the inner conflict that love creates when we desire it and yet yearn for it to remain innocent.

Virginal" seems straightforward upon first reading but a closer look reveals a deeper meaning, double entendre revolving around pure love and physical love. Beginning with a shout, the poem captures our attention. The poet is in conflict with emotions - he is seeing love through two sets of eyes - the real and the unreal or the imperfect and the perfect. Love is perfect as long as it stays in the unreal world - that is until it is consummated. Once it moves from the unreal into the real, it is not perfect anymore. This poem lingers between both worlds like a mist, with the poet languidly steeping from one into the other.

The first metaphor the poet shows us the use of the word virginal in the title. It was a spinet used during the Renaissance and was generally played by young girls. This image brings a young, innocent girl to our minds and it works well with the poem's variation of the Petrarchan sonnet form. Virginal also relates to pristine or chase characteristics, which also describe the girl. These images allow us to see the girl in her innocent form, which represents the unreal world. The unreal world brings us to the real world, represented by the physical aspects of love. The poem is cryptic, however, in its delivery and we must read between the lines to see the conflict. It opens with an exclamation of no, as if the poet is turning away from the girl.

The poem reveals an underlying image of turmoil. He is turning away from the girl because he does not want to taint her or ruin the perfect image before him. The pure and chaste world to which the poet eludes is filled with positive images, which reflect how the poet sees love and the girl. For example, he does not want to "spoil" (2) his sheath with anything that is not as bright as the one he loves because she is surrounded by a "new lightness" (3). The sheath and the light are images we can associate with the act of sex. She is also described as "magic in her nearness" (7) and "soft as spring wind" (10), and white as the birches bark. The poet does not waste any time getting to physical aspect of his love - or the imperfect aspect of it. This is the source of poet's conflict - his wants her but he does not want to stain her. His human desire is in conflict with the girl's innocence.

While the poem seems to be about the physical aspect of love, we have no real evidence that anything physical occurred. We can come to this conclusion from the rest of the poem that emphasizes innocence. For instance, the girl entices him with "magic" (12), not to mention that only half of him is sheathed. Once at the beginning of the poem and then in the middle - these exclamations mean something. Here we must answer the question of to whom the poet is speaking. He could be speaking to another woman that has approached him. It is also possible that the poet is speaking to himself in that he does not want to spoil the girl's virginity with sex. It is pure and beautiful and he does not want to change her. His desire is to keep her in the unreal world of imagery and metaphor.

Another indication of the perfect in contrast with the imperfect is demonstrated with the death imagery. We can assume that the loss of virginity would be some sort of death and, while the poets what, it would kill something and make the perfect imperfect. Another contrasting image that forces us to think of this difference is the mention of winter and spring.