Only a few of the Poems of Ezra Pound are attractive to me. I like most those poems inspired by traditional Japanese Haiku poetry. One of my favorites is:

In a Station of the Metro.

The apparition of these faces in the crowd ;
Petals on a wet, black bough.


This poem was inspired by seeing the faces of beautiful women in the Subway train station of Paris. Similarly James Blunt's Song, You're Beautiful seems to be about a chance encounter with some anonymous beautiful stranger in the London subway. Here is the song:


You're Beautiful Lyrics
Artist(Band):James Blunt

My life is brilliant.

My life is brilliant.
My love is pure.
I saw an angel.
Of that I'm sure.
She smiled at me on the subway.
She was with another man.
But I won't lose no sleep on that,
'Cause I've got a plan.

You're beautiful. You're beautiful.
You're beautiful, it's true.
I saw your face in a crowded place,
And I don't know what to do,
'Cause I'll never be with you.

Yeah, she caught my eye,
As we walked on by.
She could see from my face that I was,
Flying high, [ - video/radio edited version]
high, [ - CD version]
And I don't think that I'll see her again,
But we shared a moment that will last till the end.

You're beautiful. You're beautiful.
You're beautiful, it's true.
I saw your face in a crowded place,
And I don't know what to do,
'Cause I'll never be with you.

You're beautiful. You're beautiful.
You're beautiful, it's true.
There must be an angel with a smile on her face,
When she thought up that I should be with you.
But it's time to face the truth,
I will never be with you.


The main similarity between the two pieces is the powerful spiritual and emotional effect that a beautiful face(s) seem to have on the two men. Here we have a sense of infinite beauty triumphing, even if for a single giddy instant, over an ordinary or even dirty-day and ugly world. In the case of Pound, it seems more ugly than ordinary; whereas in the case of Blunt, more ordinary than ugly. Ofcourse Pound being an imagist allows the poem to speak for itself, through images, relying on the intelligence of the reader far more so than Blunt. Consequently Matthew Wilkening of AOL Radio listed it as the 96th Worst Song Ever, and "[o]ne of the worst songs ever to best define cloying: 'To cause disgust by supplying too much of something originally pleasant.' Rolling Stones Magazine ranked it 7 in world's most 10 annoying songs. And Sun readers rated it as the most irritating song of all time.

And ofcourse James Blunt had to ruin it even more by suggesting on the Oprah show that far from being struck by an anonymous beauty(ies) in the subway like Pound was, that the song was inspired by seeing an ex with 'another man'. This to my mind takes away from the purity of the song, makes it a little more vulgar. Nonetheless both pieces attempt with varying degrees of success to recapture the momentary bliss of infinite beauty, which in a world weighed down so often by the lead weight of the dull and ordinary lifts common terrestrial life to the level of the spiritual or cosmic. Or in the words of William Blake in a collection appropriately entitled Songs of Innocence (because it is in our childhood these visions or angel-visitings from that other world of the infinite come easiest to us):

To see a world in a grain of sand,
And a heaven in a wild flower,
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand,
And eternity in an hour

Wish I'd written my dissertation on this now - what an idea! And god does it make me hate James Blunt even more - though I am doubtful he was thinking of Pound when he wrote that song :p. Ezra Pound is one of my favourite poets. If you aren't that keen, try his book 'The ABC of Reading'; it's a bit preachy but fantastic at the same time.

Wish I'd written my dissertation on this now - what an idea! And god does it make me hate James Blunt even more - though I am doubtful he was thinking of Pound when he wrote that song :p.

I personally kind of doubt Blunt even has heard of Pound. Not to mention the subject matter of both texts is virtually diametrically opposed (observation vs emotion). Actually I don´t really see a connection, save the fact that metro is mentioned and faces. :mischief: