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“Sonnet” by Ezra Pound 🇺🇸🇮🇹 (30 Oct 1885 – 1 Nov 1972)
If on the tally-board of wasted days
They daily write me for proud idleness,
Let high Hell summons me, and I confess,
No overt act the preferred charge allays.
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To-day I thought—what boots it what I thought?
Poppies and gold! Why should I blurt it out?
Or hawk the magic of her name about
Deaf doors and dungeons where no truth is bought?
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Who calls me idle? I have thought of her.
Who calls me idle? By God’s truth I’ve seen
The arrowy sunlight in her golden snares.
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Let him among you all stand summonser
Who hath done better things! Let whoso hath been
With worthier works concerned, display his wares!