She is also described as "magic in her nearness" (7) and "soft as spring wind" (10), and white as the birches bark. The poet does not waste any time getting to physical aspect of his love - or the imperfect aspect of it. This is the source of poet's conflict - his wants her but he does not want to stain her. His human desire is in conflict with the girl's innocence. While the poem seems to be about the physical aspect of love, we have no real evidence that anything physical occurred. We can come to this conclusion from the rest of the poem that emphasizes innocence. For instance, the girl entices him with "magic" (12), not to mention that only half of him is sheathed. Once at the beginning of the poem and then in the middle - these exclamations mean something. Here we must answer the question of to whom the poet is speaking. He could be speaking to another woman that has approached him. It is also possible that the poet is speaking to himself in that he does not want to spoil the girl's virginity with sex. It is pure and beautiful and he does not want to change her. His desire is to keep her in the unreal world of imagery and metaphor.

Another indication of the perfect...

We can assume that the loss of virginity would be some sort of death and, while the poets what, it would kill something and make the perfect imperfect. Another contrasting image that forces us to think of this difference is the mention of winter and spring.
Ezra Pound is an eclectic poet that enjoys wordplay and the imagination. "A Virginal" illustrates the poet's unique style of employing imagery, metaphor, and symbolism in an eclectic form. Pound explores the notion of love before it moves from the perfect world into the imperfect world. He grasps the emotions associated with pure love of another world and love as it exists in this world, which is not perfect and sometimes troublesome. Love has seasons like spring and winter and while pure, innocent love is beautiful, it cannot stay that way if it is to be acted upon and carried to the next level. It cannot help but make us cry when it moves from the perfect, unreal world to the imperfect, real world.

Works Cited

Pound, Ezra. "A Virginal." Poem Hunter Online. Site Accessed April 17, 2008. http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/a-virginal/