Question

Which of these lines from the poem warrants the longest pause?

No, no! Go from me. I have left her lately.

And left me cloaked as with a gauze of æther;

Oh, I have picked up magic in her nearness

Hath of the trees a likeness of the savour:

Answer 1

A Virginal
by Ezra Pound

No, no! Go from me. I have left her lately.
I will not spoil my sheath with lesser brightness,
For my surrounding air hath a new lightness;
Slight are her arms, yet they have bound me straitly
And left me cloaked as with a gauze of æther;
As with sweet leaves; as with subtle clearness.
Oh, I have picked up magic in her nearness
To sheathe me half in half the things that sheathe her.
No, no! Go from me. I have still the flavour,
Soft as spring wind that’s come from birchen bowers.
Green come the shoots, aye April in the branches,
As winter’s wound with her sleight hand she staunches,
Hath of the trees a likeness of the savour:
As white their bark, so white this lady’s hours.

Answer 2

No, no! Go from me. I have left her lately.