The poem describes a young woman's marriage at age 14 to her lord husband in ancient China. As was customary at the time, especially in rural areas, women married very young. The woman expresses sadness and longing for her husband who has been gone for five months on a trip. She remains respectful in her role as wife, referring to him as "My Lord", never laughing, and keeping her head lowered. The poem provides cultural context about traditional gender norms and customs in early 20th century Chinese society.

1. The River-
Merchant’s Wife

2. The River-Merchant’s Wife: A Letter
Ezra Pound, 1885 - 1972
While my hair was still cut straight across my forehead
I played about the front gate, pulling flowers.
You came by on bamboo stilts, playing horse,
You walked about my seat, playing with blue plums.
And we went on living in the village of Chokan:
Two small people, without dislike or suspicion.
At fourteen I married My Lord you.
I never laughed, being bashful.
Lowering my head, I looked at the wall.
Called to, a thousand times, I never looked back.
At fifteen I stopped scowling,
I desired my dust to be mingled with yours
Forever and forever and forever.
Why should I climb the look out?
At sixteen you departed,
You went into far Ku-to-yen, by the river of swirling eddies,
And you have been gone five months.
The monkeys make sorrowful noise overhead.
You dragged your feet when you went out.
By the gate now, the moss is grown, the different mosses,
Too deep to clear them away!
The leaves fall early this autumn, in wind.
The paired butterflies are already yellow with August
Over the grass in the West garden;
They hurt me. I grow older.
If you are coming down through the narrows of the river Kiang,
Please let me know beforehand,
And I will come out to meet you
As far as Cho-fu-Sa.

3. “At fourteen I married My Lord you.
I never laughed, being bashful.
Lowering my head, I looked at the wall.”
During the 20th century and especially ancient cultures women married much younger.
Even in modern China women are expected to marry early or else they are seen as
“undesirable”. The girl addresses he husband as “Lord” which would be a respectful
term to use. Also in 20th century Chinese culture, women were expected to act a
certain way. She is very much so inferior to her husband, lowering her head and
controlling her emotions.

4. Languages

5. Languages
BY CARL SANDBURG
THERE are no handles upon a language
Whereby men take hold of it
And mark it with signs for its remembrance.
It is a river, this language,
Once in a thousand years
Breaking a new course
Changing its way to the ocean.
It is mountain effluvia
Moving to valleys
And from nation to nation
Crossing borders and mixing.
Languages die like rivers.
Words wrapped round your tongue today
And broken to shape of thought
Between your teeth and lips speaking
Now and today
Shall be faded hieroglyphics
Ten thousand years from now.
Sing—and singing—remember
Your song dies and changes
And is not here to-morrow
Any more than the wind
Blowing ten thousand years ago.

6. “It is mountain effluvia
Moving to valleys
And from nation to nation
Crossing borders and mixing.
Languages die like rivers.”
Sandburg wrote this during a time that a flood of immigrants poured into America
creating “the great melting pot” we know of today. People with many different types
of ethnicities, cultures, and especially languages crossed borders to form what we see
today. Many immigrants assimilated and adopted English explaing Sandburg’s
statement that languages die like rivers.