Au Jardin by Ezra Pound

Au Jardin – By: Ezra Pound

O you away high there,
you that lean
From amber lattices upon the cobalt night,
I am below amid the pine trees,
Amid the little pine trees, hear me!

'The jester walked in the garden.'
Did he so?
Well, there's no use your loving me
That way, Lady;
For I've nothing but songs to give you.

I am set wide upon the world's ways
To say that life is, some way, a gay thing,
But you never string two days upon one wire
But there'll come sorrow of it.
And I loved a love once,
Over beyond the moon there,
I loved a love once,
And, may be, more times,

But she danced like a pink moth in the shrubbery.
Oh, I know you women from the 'other folk',
And it'll all come right,
O' Sundays.

'The jester walked in the garden.'
Did he so?

Analysis:

“Au Jardin” is a beautiful poem written by Ezra Pound. I interpret this poem as someone tricked into love, thus explaining the importance of jester in this piece. A jester was a form of comedic relief for kings in medieval times and sometimes symbolizes a character of trickery. “And I loved a love once…And may be, more times.” This quote proves that the narrator of the story has loved someone before, but has been tricked out of love. The jester is not specific gender because Pound wants you to see it as either sex. The setting is a garden, which is a place of peace to the narrator and is place that reminds them of love. Pound’s main message is that love can create much happiness for you, but can hurt just as much when it is taken away. Ezra’s beautiful descriptions of the garden really were effective in making this a nice piece of poetry.

Other views of this poem, have the thought that this poem is describing the British post war. The Jester in this poem symbolizes the Americans in the war and how their ways of society are not pure. As well, explaining at the same time how the next generation nations are meaningless.