Based on the given stanza, identify the poem.

Luini in porcelain!
The grand piano
Utters a profane
Protest with her clear soprano.

Correct option is C

Explanation:

The given stanza is from Ezra Pound’s poem Medallion, which is an exemplary work from the Imagist movement that Pound himself helped to establish. The poem is marked by its rich visual and auditory imagery, drawing attention to artistic objects and music, which become symbolic within the poem. The mention of Luini, a reference to Bernardino Luini, the Italian Renaissance painter known for his delicate and refined depictions, sets the tone for the poem’s focus on artistic beauty. Similarly, the grand piano becomes a representation of controlled musical expression, yet it produces a profane protest, suggesting an underlying disruption or tension between refined aesthetics and raw emotion. This theme is a recurrent motif in Pound’s work, where art, music, and poetry intersect to create layered meaning.
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Information Booster:

Medallion is one of Pound’s works that exemplifies the precision and clarity of Imagist poetry.

• The poem presents an intricate fusion of visual, musical, and poetic elements, reinforcing the idea that poetry should be as vivid and immediate as a painting or a musical performance.
• The reference to Luini’s porcelain evokes a sense of delicacy and fragility, contrasting with the profane and disruptive nature of the soprano’s voice.
• This duality mirrors the conflict between artistic refinement and raw human expression.
• The grand piano is not just a musical instrument but a symbol of structured, formal art that now utters a protest, implying a rebellion against conventional expectations of beauty.
• The use of sharp, precise imagery reflects Pound’s commitment to the Imagist movement, which emphasized directness, clarity, and economy of language.
• The phrase “night resonance recedes”, appearing later in the poem, suggests a retreat of sound and meaning, creating an atmosphere where music, art, and language converge into a moment of transformation or loss.
• Medallion does not merely describe a scene but instead creates a deeply evocative and symbolic experience, encouraging readers to see artistic beauty not as static but as something that constantly interacts with the world and human emotion.
• His work, including The Cantos, had a lasting impact on modernist poetry.
• Pound’s approach influenced poets like T.S. Eliot and William Carlos Williams, shaping 20th-century poetic technique.

Additional Knowledge:

Winds of May

• A lyrical poem by James Joyce, part of Chamber Music, reflecting on youth and fleeting love. The poem is gentle and melancholic, very different from Medallion.
  

Howl

• Howl by Allen Ginsberg is a landmark Beat poem, known for its raw, rebellious critique of modern society, written in long, unstructured lines—a stark contrast to Pound’s controlled precision.
  

The Bridge

• The Bridge by Hart Crane is a modernist epic poem that explores American culture and progress through historical and mythological symbolism, differing from the focused Imagist technique of Medallion.