A Song of the Degrees
I Rest me with Chinese colours, For I think the glass is evil. II The wind moves above the wheat- With a silver crashing, A thin war of metal. I have known the golden disc, I have seen it melting above me. I have known the stone-bright place, The hall of clear colours. III O glass subtly evil, O confusion of colours! O light bound and bent in, soul of the captive, Why am I warned? Why am I sent away? Why is your glitter full of curious mistrust? O glass subtle and cunning, O powdery gold! O filaments of amber, two-faced iridescence!
A Song of the Degrees - meaning Summary
Glass as Corrupting Vision
Pound’s poem contrasts natural light and cultivated colour with a corrosive artificial brilliance. The speaker asks to be soothed by ‘‘Chinese colours’’ and rejects glass as evil, associating it with trapped, two-faced light and mistrust. Images of wind over wheat, a melting golden disc, and a hall of clear colours set up a longing for authentic brightness while condemning the glittering, deceptive surfaces that exile or warn the observer.
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