English painter Dorothy Pound, born Dorothy Shakespear in 1886, was the daughter of London solicitor, Henry Hope Shakespear. Her mother, Olivia Shakespear, was a novelist and an intimate friend (occasional lover) of W.B. Yeats, although Pound had made the acquaintance of the Shakespears before his work with Yeats began in 1914. Dorothy was 23 when she met Ezra, noting the following in her diary of 1909:
“Ezra”. Listen to it, Ezra! Ezra! - And a third time - Ezra! He has a wonderful beautiful face, a high forehead . . . a long, delicate nose, with little, red nostrils; a strange mouth, never still, & quite elusive; a square chin, slightly cleft in the middle-the whole face pale; the eyes gray-blue; the hair golden-brown, and curling in soft wavy crinkles. Large hands, with long, well-shaped fingers, and beautiful nails.