Ezra Pound
Ezra Pound's ABC of Reading
Short, lively, excellent introduction of Pound to his own poetics.
Ezra Pound: The Cantos by George Kearns
Chronology
- "Toward reading the Cantos",
which encourages just reading the book rather than trying to understand every reference.
- "Installments":
- 1930: draft of XXX Cantos.
- 1934: eleven new Cantos.
- 1937: the fifth decad of Cantos, including the three great lyrics 45, 47, and 49.
- 1940: Cantos LII to LXXI.
- 1948: The Pisan Cantos.
- 1955: Rock Drill.
- 1959: Thrones.
- 1969: Drafts and fragments of Cantos.
- "Representative figures", i.e. who he quotes
(though without attribution, instead of
avoiding plagiarism):
Confucius, Fenollosa, Ovid, Scotus Erigena, Cavalcanti, Douglas, Adams, Mussolini.
- "Dissemination", which includes Pounds criticism of a poet that copies his style as having
"linguistic parasitism". Reports [p. 111]:
"The Cantos, as a long poem breaking with structures of narrative, drama,
or philosophical discourse (all of which it contains, fragmented), has provided
... an example or encouragement for many long poems or poetic 'sequences'".
Concludes with a useful "Guide to further reading", evaluating about 70 texts.
Particularly recommends Carroll Terrell's
"monumental labor of love",
A Companion to the Cantos of Ezra Pound
and Hugh Kenner's
"dazzling"
The Pound Era (1971).
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Links and Books.
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[Thanks for visiting.]