[1] French, meaning 'the portrait of a lady.'
[2] Throughout this poem, the word 'you' refers to the woman mentioned in the title.
[3] Section of the North Atlantic Ocean between the West Indies and the Azores. It
is famous for its motionless body of water, which is covered by seaweeds, the plants
that grow in the sea.
[4] Your mind and you are so similar to Sargasso Sea. They are motionless and calm,
and they are covered with seaweed.
[6] Londoners have been coming to that area (the Sargasso Sea)to see you for twenty years.
In this line Pound addresses the woman who has been living in London for twenty years, but she is most probably originally French as the title suggests. She has been influenced by
different cultural currents in London. Moreover, as far as the word mind suggests, it sounds as if Londoners have come to that body of water.
[7] In order to go back to the first line of this poem, Pound uses the word 'ships,'
which refers to the simile of the Sargasso Sea.
[8] Pound addresses the woman.
[9] The ship comes to you, and it leaves you this or that. Pound will talk about these
two, this or that, in the following lines.
[10] It is a legal term. It means in complete ownership.
[11] Something is given to you. Therefore, you are the owner.
[12] 'Ideas and old gossips' refers to 'your mind'.
[13] Extra things. Oddments can refer to the cargos of the ship, goods carried by the
sea.
[14] In this line, Pound addresses both her mind and the ship in order to have a
combination of these two to complicate the simile.
[15] The word 'spar' means the pole, which supports the sail. 'Spar' may mean argue
or angrily talking, too. 'Spar of knowledge' may refer to poles of knowledge that are
going to her. Pound follows the game he started since this word refers to both ship
and the mind.
[16] Not original. The ships take these goods to you; therefore, they are not yours.
[17] The goods or the cargos of the ship.
[19] Pound plays the game artistically by referring to both 'ship', with the use of the
words 'spar' and 'wares', and 'mind', and with the use of the word 'knowledge'.
[20] Intellectuals. Pound starts the poem with the word 'your mind' to reach the word
'great minds' which indicate the intellectual atmosphere of the poem.
[21] The intellectuals have come to you since they need you. However, it is not clear
'lacking someone else' means they really need you, or you are the best choice they
have.
[22] Is it tragic to be second, or to be inferior in a relation?
[23] 'It' refers to be second.
[24] You have two choices: to be among intellectuals or act as the usual thing. This
'thing' is going to be defined in the next lines. However, as a whole, she prefers to be
among intellectuals, most probably male intellectuals, and even to be
considered second, which means she accepts her inferiority, rather than acting in the
usual way.
[25] Unintelligent and intellectually boring.
[26] A man who is extremely devoted to his wife, ordinary person.
[27] 'Thing' is defined in these two lines. Her other choice is to be among ordinary
men who are going to be more ordinary every year. She prefers the first choice, as
she is clever.This poem can be a fantastic poem for feminist and anti-feminist critics
since Pound refers to men as the 'dull' citizens, and, at the same time, we have the
repetitions of the word 'second'. However, an anti-feminist may support his ideas
effortlessly. Pound attacks the intellectual women after the world wars. He attacks
women for being second-class citizens among male intellectuals and accuses them of
accepting their inferiority in a male intellectual circle.
[28] She is waiting, so she is patient. After those two lines of definition of the word
'thing', Pound goes back to the old game: the woman and the ship, but now we know
she is second.
[29] 'Something' refers to both men and knowledge or ideas.
[30] Comes out of the water. Therefore, this word refers to the things carried and left
by the ships.
[31] The ship has left the oddments. The woman, who is sitting there, is waiting for
the oddments, pieces of knowledge, to float up.
[32] You get the oddments.
[33] As you get the oddments and become rich, you give to the person, who comes
to you as an intellectual, what he wants: those pieces of knowledge since you keep
those pieces of knowledge and enrich them.
[35] If a man comes to you for the lack of knowledge, you will give him. That man
makes use of you to get his hand on those ideas 'and takes gain away.' The word 'gain'
is going to be defined in the successive line.
[36] Tokens of the victory. It refers to the knowledge.
[37] This word suggests the ship.
[38]. Pound continues the game by combining the mind, 'trophies', which refers to
those oddments, from which we infer pieces of knowledge', and the ship, 'fished up'.
These trophies are among those oddments. If you go towards the woman, you can find
them. As a whole, this line means the woman gives the knowledge to the man.
[39] 'Suggestion' leads us to the 'mind.' You may listen to some curious suggestion,
which can inspire you.
[40] You may know the fact, but it can be useless.
[41] You can tell a tale or two tales, which can be 'pregnant with mandrakes.'
[42] A plant in Europe and Asia that has yellow or purplish flowers and a forked root
resembling a human body. It was formerly believed to have magical powers: giving the
ability of pregnancy to women. The word 'mandrakes' may refer to Sargasso Sea and
the covering of the seaweed. The seaweeds can cause pregnancy.
[43] In the first line, Pound makes 'the mind' so close to 'Sargasso Sea'. If we consider
that the coverings of the sea, the seaweeds or the mandrakes, can cause pregnancy,
consequently, we can refer these words to the mind, too. Therefore, this line has two
meanings: the woman would be pregnant, or she is pregnant with knowledge or ideas.
[44] Your tales can be useful. But they are not usually useful since they are so stupid.
[45] You may never use those tales to fit a corner, for making something.
[47] It might be useful. Pound by using the word 'or' shows he is not certain in these
lines. He says it may be useful.
[48] Became dull and discoloured.
[51] Although they are gaudy, they are tarnished since those oddments are left in your
lagoon, a partly enclosed area of seawater.
[52] A gray waxy substance, consisting mainly of cholesterol, secreted from the
intestines of the sperm whale. It floats in the tropical waters and is used in perfume
making. It is spreading everywhere. It might be dirty, but result in the perfume.
[53] Pieces of material such as wood, ivory, or stone set into a surface of a piece of
furniture to form a decorative pattern. The word 'inlay' refers to something, which is
left in you, and the idea of riches that will come.
[54] The sperm of whales are spreading all over the sea. We can infer that Pound tries
to refer to both the ship that is sailing in the sea, and the man who comes to her to
make her pregnant, with new ideas. The old work, or the sperms, is going to be
enriched by her since she tries to bring new ideas. She enriches the ideas. As far as
the word 'ambergris' suggests the oddments, the knowledge, or the ideas, they can be
only oddments at first, but the result is something with a good smell.
These are your riches.
[55] Hoard is a secret store that has been hidden for use in the future.
[56] Shedding, or losing naturally.
[57] These riches are going to be changed. Oddments come to you. You keep some of
them, and then you enrich, change, and finally give them back. The word 'deciduous'
refers to the idea of the leaving of these things from you.
[60] New ships will come and leave you. Some critics believe that Pound tries to admire
Greek sources by referring to the old work. According to their view, this work of art is a
Homeric one and the area of that is Greece, which is called seaweed in this poem. London is the place of modern poetry. Greeks left us the raw materials and we use them
to have a new work of art. Pound leaves out useless Homeric materials.
[61] Pound goes back to the ship.
[62] Things are floating up and down, and the light and depth are going to be changed.
According to the words he used in previous lines, 'tarnished, gaudy', we can infer that
since you are not original, the ships have left you the oddments that are wonderful old
work, but they are tarnished.
[63] This is the sea. In fact, there is nothing. There are only oddments.
[64] Nothing belongs to you completely since the ships have left something for you,
but they are changing.
[65] Some critics believe that you may refer to the poet, Pound, since he is waiting
for the knowledge to float up. He understands the situation, and tries to change it by
the use of opportunities. Nevertheless, some critics are against this idea since they
believe he cannot be asecond-class citizen in an intellectual society. We cannot be
certain which group is right since Pound paves the way for both groups.
ANALYSIS
'Portrait d'une femme' is the embodiment of a modern framed metaphor. Pound starts the
poem with a deviation from traditional poetry since he makes use of conceit, which was
used by metaphysical poets like John Donne, but he uses ambiguous words in order to
change this traditional poetry to modern poetry. The ambiguous words, which have
different and simultaneously relevant meanings, lead us to uncertainty, and this
uncertainty besides that deviation makes the poem a modern one. How Pound creates a
modern poem with the use of these two is the main concern of this essay.
Likening your beloved to a sea, which is covered by seaweed, is a conceit, but Pound
goes for the most unlikely choice to create a modern poem. This conceit leads us to
seventeenth century poetry when John Donne made use of conceits. However, they are
different in one way; traditionally every other sentence must support the first extended
metaphor, but in this poem, Pound acts as a modern poet. The first line is the conceit,
but we have a different picture in the second line. Pound talks about Sargasso Sea in
the first line and the Londoners who came to that area to see her in the second line. The
second picture is very different from the first one. Instead of that second picture, we
are waiting for a line that addresses the metaphor, as the traditional poets used to do,
but contrarily he addresses the woman herself. These shattered pictures are going to be
combined in the following lines. In the third line, this combination confuses the reader.
We do not know which of these pictures is more important and will be explained in the
lines that follow. As we go on we see that what is important is their combination. This
combination is the key to the poem. The ambiguous words make that combination, and
this combination leads us to uncertainty and, consequently, a very modern poem.
Since he is a modern poet, he does not express his ideas clearly. He starts a brilliant game
with the key words: the woman and the ship. We, as the readers, must infer the
references which we can never be certain of. Every line has the capacity of these
ambiguous meanings. The word spars means the pole of the sail, but it may mean the
poles of knowledge since the following words of knowledge depicts it. What we understand
from the word something in the line where something might have floated up is the
oddments, but we can infer that he means the knowledge based on the previous lines. The
same game is played in the other lines. Trophies fished up may refer to the oddments as
the meaning of the word besides the line suggests, but we can infer knowledge from the
previous lines. This uncertainty on the meanings of the words leads him to be uncertain
about his own ideas. Pound gives the game away. He is not certain whether the knowledge
is useful or useless.
This uncertainty may open the door for any critic to talk about his ideas, but he cannot
spend more than a few minutes talking about them since Pound does not let him. Critics are
uncertain because of the language that Pound chooses.
Maryam Javaherinia