Olga Rudge & Ezra Pound: "What Thou Lovest Well..."

That lurks behind the hills, shall snap wind’s leash
And hurl tumultuous on the peace before
But I see more.
261 Olga Triumphant
One wonders if Pound, who professed to ‘‘see more’’ at the death isle in
1907, had foreseen his own final resting place some sixty-five years later?
Father Victor Stanley accompanied the family and some twenty close
friends to San Michele to perform the last rites. After the others left,
Joan Fitzgerald and Desmond O’Grady stayed behind with Olga, Mary,
and Patrizia. O’Grady threw a fistful of clay on the grave, and ‘‘we departed,
leaving Ezra for the last time. I have never felt so lonely in
my life.’’
Olga had sent a telegram to Omar Pound at Cambridge: ‘‘After three
days illness, Ezra died in his sleep—please break news to Dorothy.’’ It
arrived too late. According to James Laughlin, when Omar flew to Venice
with Peter du Santoy of Faber & Faber, Olga had gone ahead with the
funeral, ‘‘despite Omar’s having telephoned asking her to delay it . . .
rather harsh, but I guess the poor thing is quite distracted.’’ Olga was
accused by English friends of having hastened the funeral so that Omar
would not be present, but she insisted that she had made desperate e√orts
to stop it. ‘‘EP’s . . . son [was] known in Venice during the last ten years by
his absence. . . . he came once and was treated with courtesy,’’ she said. She
had always felt sorry for the boy.
On November 4, when Omar and du Santoy finally arrived from England,
Olga returned with them to the gravesite. They ‘‘spent an evening
with the entire de Rachewiltz family,’’ Laughlin remembered, but ‘‘all
discussion about family matters was . . . at cross purposes. I hope they can
find a way to work out their di≈culties without getting into the hands of
lawyers.’’
Dorothy Pound maintained the sti√ upper lip typical of a British matron
under the most di≈cult circumstances. ‘‘I regret that the funeral itself had
to be so hurried, as several queries have come as to when—where,’’ she
wrote Olga. ‘‘I have never been to the Cemetery Island, and am glad it
seems such a pleasant spot. . . . my fervent thanks to yourself for looking