Analysis of "The River-Merchant's Wife: A Letter," by Ezra Pound

Bootie Call at Cho-fu-Sa "The River-Merchant's Wife: A Letter," by Ezra Pound is not only a letter from a woman to her husband, but is also a narrative of a young woman's sex life. It tells of a river merchant's wife's feelings on sex throughout her life and marriage. It also shows how her views change with time and circumstances. The poem starts with her early childhood, and then goes quickly into marriage, and ends …

…the poem she is a sex-starved, bitter woman who hates butterflies. She goes through a complete in only three years. The last four lines of the poem make it all too clear: 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. (26-29) She would go all the way to Cho-fu-Sa to get a little bootie.