EZRA POUND AND HIS POETRY
By: Harrison Eckert Pd: 4
Overview of Presentation Brief Biography Literary Forms and Contributions Acclaimed Works: Cathay; Homage
to Sextus Propertius; Hugh Selwyn Mauberley
The Cantos—His Prize Piece Imprisonment and Mental Breakdown Pound’s Legacy
Brief Biography Early Life:
Death:
Where did he live?
Pound’s Personality
:
The Women:Dorothy Shakespeare: Olga Rudge:
Literary Forms and Contributions
Diverse Interests:Translator:
( i.e. Chinese, Japanese, and Old Germanic)
Imagism
Literary Forms and Contributions
Diverse Interests: Promoter:
(T.S. Eliot, Ernest Hemingway, Robert Frost)
Literary Forms and Contributions
Diverse Interests:Critic:
○Political ○Social○Economic
Acclaimed Works Cathay:
Parallel between Chinese poetry and Japanese drama to World War I
Thumbs down by readers
Acclaimed Works Homage to Sextus
Propertius:Pound’s first extended poemParallel between Propertius’s
Rome (The Past) and Pound’s London (The Present)
Also a thumbs down by readers
Acclaimed Works Hugh Selwyn
Mauberley: New element introduced: the
persona of Hugh Selwyn Mauberley
Readers more receptive○ Partially autobiographical○ Expression of Pound’s WWI
frustrations
Pound’s Farewell To London To short poems To using independent
personas
MOVE TO ITALY!
The Cantos: Pound’s Major Work
800 page poem Had 117 sections 51 years worth of work Unfinished at his death Pound thought that this
poem was extremely unified, while readers thought the polar opposite.
The Cantos: Pound’s Major Work
Complicated??? YES!!!! Four section division:
Early CantosMiddle CantosPisan CantosLater Cantos
Early Cantos Theme:
Renaissance Parallel between
the past (the Renaissance) and the present (a New Renaissance)
Early Cantos Focus: Culture and Artistic
Material
16th century Venice Sigismundo Malatesta
Middle Cantos Themes: Good vs. Evil…Order vs. Disorder Focus: Politics and Economics
Good vs. Bad RulersGood vs. Bad Banks
Belief: Modern Banking Practices (Jews and
usury)=DisorderConfucius and Benito Mussolini= Political Order
Middle Cantos Result: Public broadcast
on Rome’s radio of Anti-Semitism and critique of the U.S., Jews, and Franklin D. Roosevelt.
Consequence: Pound Arrested by U.S. for treason
Imprisonment and Mental Breakdown
1945…Pound arrested for treason
U.S. Military Camp in Pisa…25 days in a “Death Cell”
Imprisonment and Mental Breakdown
While in St. Elizabeth’s Psychiatric Hospital in Washington, D.C. for 12 years, Pound began to work on the Pisan Cantos.
He was eventually released and returned to Italy.
Pisan Cantos Written from the
Psychiatric Hospital Prison Camp on toilet paper in his cell
Pisan Cantos What he abandoned: Order
and Confucian principals What he included: Subject
jumping by use of haiku-like juxtapositions
What he believed: His work was really ordered
Results: Pound’s Best Writing and a Bollingen Prize
Later Cantos Focus on order again Realizations:
His ideals will not come to fruition in his lifetime
Admits failure in his poetryAdmits failure in his political
viewsConfesses disunity of The
Cantos Appeal to the reader: Go
beyond Pound and find unity
Pound’s Legacy Egotistical Controversial Views and Achievements Poet’s Poet—Difficult to Study Agreement on Pound’s Literary
Contributions:Strong LYRICISTIntroduced MODERNISMPromoted IMAGISMInfluenced and Promoted Works of Many
Famous Poets
BibliographyBrooks, Van Wyck. Writers at Work: The Paris Review Interviews : Second Series. New York:
Viking, 1965. Print.
Jason, Philip K., and Frank N. Magill, eds. Critical Survey of Poetry. Second ed. Vol. 8.
Pasadena, CA: Salem, 2003. Print.
Litz, A. Walton., Jay Parini, and Leonhard Unger. Archibald MacLeish to George Santayana.
New York, NY: Scribner, 1974. Print.
Mangan, James C. Critical Survey of Poetry. Ed. Philip K. Jason and Frank N. Magill. Second
ed. Vol. 5. Pasadena, CA: Salem, 2003. Print.
O'Connor, William Van. Ezra Pound. Minneapolis: n.p., 1963. Print.
Quinn, Mary Bernetta. Ezra Pound; an Introduction to the Poetry. New York: Columbia UP,
1972. Print.
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