Provença: Poems selected from Personae, Exultations, and Canzoniere of Ezra Pound

"Provença : Poems selected from Personae, Exultations, and Canzoniere of Ezra…" by Ezra Pound is a collection of poetry compiled in the early 20th century. The book brings together dramatic monologues, lyrics, and formal experiments that channel medieval Provence and Italy through modernist craft. Its likely topic is the renewal of old songs and courtly themes—love, war, piety, and fame—through vivid personae and finely wrought forms. The volume is arranged in three parts. Personae stages bold voices—troubadours, mystics, warriors, and wanderers—speaking from settings that range from Provençal courts and Italian roads to ash woods, sea caves, and modern London; poems like “La Fraisne,” “Cino,” “Na Audiart,” “Sestina: Altaforte,” “Ballad of the Goodly Fere,” and “Piccadilly” show desire, revolt, and spiritual hunger in archaic yet urgent diction. Exultations mixes litany and flare—Venetian night prayers, martial exultation, portraits of artists, poetic self-possession in “Histrion,” and visionary pieces like “Paracelsus in Excelsis,” alongside adaptations (Lope de Vega’s lullaby, a Greek epigram) and laments and albas in Provençal manner. Canzoniere presents strict studies in form—octaves, sonnets, ballate, and canzoni modeled on Arnaut Daniel, Dante, and Cavalcanti—where light, sea, angels, and the “Lady” organize longing and praise, culminating in an epilogue to Guido Cavalcanti and notes that gloss the medieval sources.