 Ezra Pound (1885–1972) studied Romance languages and literature, including French, Italian, Provençal, and Spanish at the University of Pennsylvania and Hamilton College.In these studies Pound—long interested in poetry—had gained an interest in turn-of-the-century English poetry.Pound dedicated "A Lume Spento" to Philadelphia artist William Brooke Smith, one of his friends, who had recently died of tuberculosis.