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.