1- Definition of the Poet :
E
zra Pound was born in Hailey, Idaho. He was brought
up in Wyncote, Philadelphia, where his father was
assistant assayer for the US Mint. He studied languages
at the University of Pennsylvania, and befriended there
the young William Carlos Williams (1883-1963), who
gained later fame as a poet in New York's avant-garde circles. From 1903 to 1906 Pound studied Anglo-Saxon and Romance languages at Hamilton College. In 1907 his teaching career was cut short at Wabash College in Crawfordsville, Indiana, when he had entertained an actress in his room.
In 1908 he traveled widely in Europe, working as a journalist. His first book of poems, A LUME SPENTO, appeared in 1908. After its publication Pound settled in London, where he founded with Richard Aldington (1892-1962) and others the literary 'Imagism', and edited its first anthology, Des Imagists (1914). The movement was influenced by thoughts of Rémy de Gourmont whose book, The Natural Philosophy of Love (1904), Pound translated later, and T.E. Hulme (1883-1917), who stressed the importance of fresh language and true perception on nature. In his cautions, published in Poetry in 1913, Pound wrote: "Don't use such an expression as 'dim lands of peace'. It dulls the image. It mixes an abstraction with the concrete. It comes from the writer's not realizing that the natural object is always the adequate symbol.
In their manifesto the Imagists promised: "1. Direct treatment of the 'thing' whether subject or objective. 2. To use absolutely no word that does not contribute to the presentation. 3. As regarding rhythm: to compose in the sequence of musical phrase, not in sequence of a metronome." Pound's short "one-image poem" 'In a Station of the Metro' is among the most celebrated Imagist works: "The apparition of these faces in the crowd; / Petals on a wet, black bough." Pound had seen a succession of beautiful faces one day on the Paris Metro, and in the evening he found suddenly the expression for his sudden emotion.
Pound soon lost interest in Imagism, and after disputing with the poet Amy Lowell, Pound called the movement "Amygism." With Wyndham Lewis and the sculptor Henri Gaudier-Brzeska he founded 'Vorticism', which produced a magazine, Blast. He helped Wyndham Lewis, T.S. Eliot and James Joyce to publish their works in the magazines Egoist and Poetry. When he worked as W.B. Yeast’s secretary, he started a correspondence with Joyce. Pound wrote on Joyce on various magazines, collected money for him, and even sent spare clothes for him. Pound also played crucial role in the cutting of Eliot's The Waste Land. Eliot dedicated to work to him, as il Miglior Fabbro (the better maker). In 1914 Pound married the artist Dorothy Shakespeare, with whom he had a son. In 1922 Pound started his relationship with the violinist Olga Rudge. From this creative, volcanic period date one of Pound's most widely read poems, HOMAGE TO SEXTUS PROPERTIUS (1919).
P
ound has been called the 'inventor' of Chinese poetry for our time. Beginning in 1913 with the notebooks of the Orientalist Ernest Fenollosa, he pursued a lifelong study of ancient Chinese texts, and translated among others the writings of Confucius. Pound's translations based on Fenollosa's notes, collected in CATHAY (1915), are considered among the most beautiful of Pound's writings. Dante and Homer became other sources for inspiration, and especially Dante's journey tchrough the realms have parallels with his examination of individual experiences in the Cantos.
And round about there is a rabble Of the filthy, study, inclinable infants of the very poor.
They shall inherit the earth(from 'The Garden', 1913, 1916) 1920 Pound moved to Paris - Britain had become him "an old bitch, gone in the teeth." Four years later her settled in Italy, where he lived over 20 years. He met Mussolini in 1933 and saw in him the long-needed economic and social reformer. In his anti-Semitic statements Pound agreed with those who believed that the economic system was being exploited by Jewish financiers. During World War II he made in Rome a series of radio broadcasts, that were openly fascist. In one of his radio talks he suggested that "if some man had a stroke of genius, and could start a pogrom against Jews... there might de something to say for it." In 1945 he was arrested by the U.S. forces - he was still and American citizen - and pronounced insane in a trial. Pound spent 12 years in Washington, D.C., in a hospital for the criminally insane. During this period he received the 1949 Bollingen Prize for his Pisan Cantos, which concerned his imprisonment at the camp near Pisa. After he was released, he returned to Italy, where he spent his remaining years. Pound died on November 1, 1972 in Venice. According to Katherine Anne Porter, "Pound was one of the most opinionated and unselfish men who ever lived, and he made friends and enemies everywhere by the simple exercise of the classic American constitutional right of free speech." (The Letters of E.P., 1907-1941, review in New York Times Book Review, 29 Oct. 1950)
Pound published over 70 books and translated Japanese plays and Chinese poetry. The Cantos, a series of poems which he wrote from 1920s throughout his life, are considered among his best works. Its last volume was DRAFTS AND FRAGMENTS OF CANTOS CX-CXVII (1968). In the Cantos Pound recorded the poet's spiritual quest for transcendence, and intellectual search for worldly wisdom. However, he did not try to imitate classical epic, but had several heroes instead of one, and projected his own self into his characters. His models were Dante's La divina commedia (c. 1320) and Robert Browning's confessional poem Sordello (1840). Just as Beatrice guided Dante's pilgrim, so also classical goddesses appear in the Cantos. Pound also presents mythical, historical, and contemporary figures, mirroring the poetry and ideas of the past and present. Canto LXXII and Canto LXXIII were not published in the early collections due to their controversial - fascist – thoughts "Great literature is simply language charged with meaning to the utmost possible degree."
A
s an essayist Pound wrote mostly about poetry. From the mid-1920s he examined in several writings the ways economic systems promote or debase culture. Pound hoped, that fascism could establish the sort of society in which the arts could flourish. He argued that poetry is not 'entertainment', and as an elitist he did not appreciate the common reader. Pound considered American culture isolated from the traditions that make the arts possible, and depicted Walt Whitman as 'exceedingly nauseating pill'. Among his most influential works are ABC OF READING (1934), which is said to have established the modernist poetic technique, and THE CHINESE WRITTEN CHARACTER AS A MEDIUM FOR POETRY (pub. 1936), compiled from the notes of Ernest Fenollosa.
For further reading: The Poetry of Ezra Pound by H. Kenner (1951); Ideas into Action by C. Emery (1958); Ezra Pound by Charles Norman (1960, rev. 1969); The Rose in the Steel Dust: An Examination of the Cantos of Ezra Pound by W. Baumann (1967); The Life of Ezra Pound by N. Stock (1970); Discretions by Mary de Rachewiltz (1971); The Pound Era by Hugh Kenner (1972); Ezra Pound: the Last Rower by C. David Heyman (1976); The Poetic Achievement of Ezra Pound by Michael Alexander (1979); Ezra Pound by James F. Knapp (1979); Ezra Pound and the Cantos by Wendy Stallard Flory (1980); Ezra Pound and the Pisan Cantos by A. Woodward (1980); Ezra Pound: the Solitary Volcano by John Tytell (1987); Ezra Pound and Italian Fascism by Tim Rddman (1991); Ezra Pound as Literary Critic by K.K. Ruthven (1991); ABC of Influence: Ezra Pound and the Remaking of American Poetic Tradition by Christopher Beach (1992); The Birth of Modernism by Leon Surette (1993); Ezra Pound as Critic by G. Singh (1994); The Cambridge Companion to Ezra Pound, ed. by Ira B, Nadel (1999) - See also: Fernando Pessoa, R. Tagore, T.S. Eliot, whom Pound met in 1914 and started to reform poetic diction with him. - Translations into Finnish: Poundilta on k??nnetty suomeksi esseekokoelma Lukemisen aakkoset ja valikoima Personae: Valikoima runoja vuosilta 1908-1919. Lis?ksi Aale Tynni teoksessa That laulujen vuotta (1974) ja Ville Revon antologiassa Tahitian very (1992) on Pound-suomennoksia. - Imagism: a short-lived movement of American and English poets whose verse was characterized by concrete language and figures of speech, modern subject matter, freedom in the use of meter, and avoidance of mystical themes. Members of the movement included Hilda Doolittle, Richard Aldington, F.S. Flint, T.E. Hulme, John Gould Fletcher, Harriet Monroe, Amy Lowell, whom Pound did not consider an imagist, but called her attempts "Amygism". The movement also influenced Conrad Aiken, Marianne Moore, Wallace Stevens, D.H. Lawrence, T.S. Eliot, Herbert Read. -The Imaginist movement deloped in 1913; its members published poems in Poetry and The New Freewoman (later The Egoist
2- Some of His works:
A LUME SPENTO, 1908
A QUINZAINE FOR THIS YULE, 1908
EXULTATIONS, 1909
PERSONAE, 1909
PROVENCA, 1910
THE SPIRIT OF ROMANCE
CANZONI, 1911
RIPOSTES, 1912
PERSONAE & EXULTATIONS, 1913
LUSTRA, 1916
NOH," OR ACCOMPLISHMENT: A STUDY OF THE CLASSICAL STAGE OF JAPAN, 1916 (with Ernest Fenollosa)
GAUDIER-BRZESKA, 1916
PAVANNES AND DIVAGATIONS, 1918
HOMAGE TO SEXTUS PROPERTICUS, 1919
QUIA PAUPER AMAVI, 1919
THE FOURTH CANTO, 1919
UMBRA, 1920
HUGH SELWYN MAUBERLEY, 1920
INSTIGATIONS, 1921
POEMS 1918-1921, 1921
INDISCRETIONS, 1923
ANTHEIL AND THE TREATISE OF HARMONY, 1924
A DRAFT OF XVI CANTOS, 1925
PERSONAE - THE COLLECTED POEMS OF EZRA POUND, 1926
A DRAFT OF THE CANTOS 17-27, 1928
SELECTED POEMS, 1928
TA HIO, 1928
IMAGINARY LETTERS, 1930
A DRAFT OF XXX CANTOS, 1930
HOW TO READ, 1931
PROLEGOMENA I, 1932
ABC OF ECONOMICS, 1933
ABC OF READING, 1934
MAKE IT NEW, 1934
ELEVEN NEW CANTOS XXXI-XLI, 1934
HOMAGE TO SEXTUS PROPERTIUS, 1934
JEFFERSON AND/OR MUSSOLINI, 1935
ALFRED VENISON'S POEMS, 1935
SOCIAL CREDIT, 1935
POLITE ESSAYS, 1937
THE FIFTH DECADE OF CANTOS, 1938
GUIDE TO KULCHUR, 1938
WHAT IS MONEY FOR?, 1939
CANTOS LII, LXXI, 1940
A SELECTION OF POEMS, 1940
CARTA DA VISTA, 1942
L'AMERICA, ROOSEVELT E LE CAUSE DELLA GUERRA PRESENTE, 1944
ORO E LAVORO, 1944
INTRODUZIONE ALLA NATURA ECONOMICA DEGLI S.U.A., 1944
ORIENTAMENTI, 1944
'IF THIS BE TREASON...', 1948
THE PISAN CANTOS, 1948
THE CANTOS OF EZRA POUND, 1949
SEVENTY CANTOS, 1950
PATRIA MIA, 1950
CONFUCIAN ANALECTS, 1951
THE LETTERS OF EZRA POUND, 1907-1941, 1950
THE CANTOS OF EZRA POUND, 1954
LITERARY ESSAYS, 1954
SELECTION: ROCK DRILL, 1955
DIPTYCH ROME-LONDON, 1958
PAVANNES AND DIVAGATIONS, 1958
THRONES: 96-109 DE LOS CANTARES, 1959
VERSI PROSAICI, 1959
IMPACTS, 1960
NUOVA ECONIMIA EDITORIALE, 1962
EP TO LU, 1963
POUND-JOYCE LETTERS, 1967
DRAFTS AND FRAGMENTS OF CANTOS CX-CXVII, 1968
SELECTED PROSE, 1909-1965, 1973
SELECTED POEMS, 1975
COLLECTED EARLY POEMS OF EZRA POUND, 1976
EZRA POUND AND MUSIC, 1977
EZRA POUND SPEAKING: RADIO SPEECHES OF WORLD WAR II, 1978
LETTERS TO IBBOTSON, 1979
EZRA POUND AND THE VISUAL ARTS, 1980
COLLECTED EARLY POEMS, 1982
EZRA POUND AND JOHN RICHMOND THEOBALD, 1983
EZRA POUND AND DOROTHY SHAKESPEARE, 1984
POUND/LEWIS, 1985
THE CANTOS, 1986
THE CORRESPONDENCE OF EZRA POUND AND WYNDHAM LEWIS, 1987
POUND/ZUKOFSKY, 1987
EZRA POUND AND JAPAN, 1987
POUND: THE LITTLE REVIEW, 1988
EZRA POUND AND MARGARET CRAVENS, 1988
EZRA POUND'S POETRY AND PROSE, 1991
SELECTED LETTERS OF EZRA POUND TO JOHN QUINN, 1991
EZRA AND DOROTHY POUND, LETTERS IN CAPTIVITY, 1945-1946, 1999
Translator: THE SPIRIT OF ROMANCE (1910); CATHAY (1915); CERTAIN NOBLE PLAYS OF JAPAN (1916); 'NOH' OR ACCOMPLISHMENT (1916); FONTENELLE. DIALOGUES (1917); REMY DE GOURMONT THE NATURAL PHILOSOPHY OF LOVE (1922); EDOUARD ESTAUNIE: THE CALL OF THE ROAD (1923); CONFUCIUS: DIGEST OF THE ANALACTS (1937); ODON POR: ITALY'S POLICY OF SOCIAL ECONOMICS (1941); TESTAMENTO DI CONFUCIO (1944); CIUNG LUNG L'ASSE CHE NON VACILLA (1945); THE CLASSIC ANTHOLOGY DEFINED BY CONFUCIUS (1954); MOSCADINO: ENRICO PEA (1956); SOPHOCHLES: WOMEN OF TRACHIS (1956); LOVE POEMS OF ANCIENT EGYPT (1962) .
3- Some of his poems:
A - Canto I
And then went down to the ship,
Set keel to breakers, forth on the godly sea, and
We set up mast and sail on that swart ship,
Bore sheep aboard her, and our bodies also
Heavy with weeping, and winds from sternward
Bore us onward with bellying canvas,
Circe’s this craft, the trim-coifed goddess.
Then sat we amidships, wind jamming the tiller,
Thus with stretched sail, we went over sea till day's end.
Sun to his slumber, shadows o'er all the ocean,
Came we then to the bounds of deepest water,
To the Kimmerian lands, and peopled cities
Covered with close-webbed mist, unpierced ever
With glitter of sun-rays
Nor with stars stretched, nor looking back from heaven
Swartest night stretched over wretched men there.
The ocean flowing backward, came we then to the place
Aforesaid by Circe.
Here did they rites, Perimeters and Eurylochus,
And drawing sword from my hip
I dug the ell-square pit kin;
Poured we libations unto each the dead,
First mead and then sweet wine, water mixed with white flour
Then prayed I many a prayer to the sickly death's-heads;
As set in Ithaca, sterile bulls of the best
For sacrifice, heaping the pyre with goods,
A sheep to Tires as only, black and a bell-sheep.
Dark blood flowed in the fosse,
Souls out of Erebus, cadaverous dead, of brides
Of youths and of the old who had borne much;
Souls stained with recent tears, girls tender,
Men many, mauled with bronze lance heads,
Battle spoil, bearing yet dreary arms,
These many crowded about me; with shouting,
Pallor upon me, cried to my men for more beasts;
Slaughtered the herds, sheep slain of bronze;
Poured ointment, cried to the gods,
To Pluto the strong, and praised Proserpine;
Unsheathed the narrow sword,
I sat to keep off the impetuous impotent dead,
Till I should hear Tires as
But first Elpenor came, our friend Elpenor,
Unburied, cast on the wide earth,
Limbs that we left in the house of Circe,
Unwept, unwrapped in the sepulcher, since toils urged other.
Pitiful spirit. And I cried in hurried speech:
"Elpenor, how art thou come to this dark coast?
"Cam'st thou afoot, outstripping seamen?"
And he in heavy speech:
"Ill fate and abundant wine. I slept in Circe’s ingle.
"Going down the long ladder unguarded,
"I fell against the buttress,
"Shattered the nape-nerve, the soul sought Avernus.
"But thou, O King, I bid remember me, unwept, unburied,
"Heap up mine arms, be tomb by sea-board, and inscribed:
"A man of no fortune, and with a name to come.
"And set my oar up, that I swung mid fellows."
And Antic lea came, whom I beat off, and then Tires as Theban,
Holding his golden wand, knew me, and spoke first:
"A second time? why? man of ill star,
"Facing the sunless dead and this joyless region?
"Stand from the fosse, leave me my bloody beaver
"For soothsay."
And I stepped back,
And he strong with the blood, said then: "Odysseus
"Shalt return through spiteful Neptune, over dark seas,
"Lose all companions." Then Antic lea came.
Lie quiet Divus. I mean, that is Andreas Divus,
In officinal Wecheli, 1538, out of Homer.
And he sailed, by Sirens and thence outwards and away
And unto Crice.
Venerandam,
In the Cretan's phrase, with the golden crown, Aphrodite,
Cypri munimenta sortita est, mirthful, oricalchi, with golden
Girdle and breat bands, thou with dark eyelids
Bearing the golden bough of Argicidia. So that.
B - A Girl
The tree has entered my hands,
The sap has ascended my arms,
The tree has grown in my breast-
Downward,
The branches grow out of me, like arms.
Tree you are,
Moss you are,
You are violets with wind above them.
A child - so high - you are,
And all this is folly to the world.
موضوع: تعريف شخصية EZRA POUND