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Title: The Cantos of Ezra Pound (New Directions Paperbook) by Ezra Pound ISBN: 0-8112-1326-9 Publisher: New Directions Publishing Pub. Date: June, 1996 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $22.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4 (15 reviews)
Rating: 2
Summary: Another failed twentieth-century experiment
Comment: This is a tough review to write. I studied Ezra Pound under Hugh Kenner and -- an even bigger piece of luck -- I read a lot of the Cantos in a seminar at U.C. Santa Barbara taught by Basil Bunting. Bunting is not yet a household name, but I believe it is accurate to say that he was an accomplished poet who spent a lot of time with Yeats and Pound. When he read the Cantos, he read them very much as Pound would have done it. And there are magnificent sounds in the Cantos, magnificent riffs of verbal magic, where Pound re-creates what he thinks Homer must have sounded like, and so forth.
But there is unfortunately the stubborn question of sanity. You can see Pound's mind reeling in the Cantos, as he begins to subscribe to crackpot economic theories (and devote whole Cantos to them, rambling on maniacally about where Martin Van Buren's policy towards the peso was misguided, and then, suddenly BLAM a string of Chinese ideograms as if to say "I told you so."
I ultimately turned against the Cantos because they didn't make sense, and also for another reason which I do consider serious: they aren't written in English! This may seem like a moronic complaint but it is not. Just as Yeats complained that free verse was like "playing tennis with the net down" -- and implied that there is a challenge to writing things which obey certain rules, so is there an unwritten rule that (say) a Japanese novel must be written in Japanese, and a French novel must be written in French. If you allow yourself, as an author, to simply go ahead and write in any language that strikes your fancy, then I will wish you luck and remove your name from the list of those authors who are devoted to writing literature in English.
I love some of Pound's early poems, especially "Exile's Letter." But beware: Pound was very pretentious about his "knowledge of Chinese." Real scholars of Chinese regard his "translations" as hamhanded rubbish.
Rating: 5
Summary: Fury and Conviction.
Comment: The Cantos are monolithic, and I think one of the most valuable pieces of literature to read from Western Civilization. Sure, they don't contain the secrets to the universe, but they do contain the thoughts of a genius who was trying to get his mind wrapped around truth. I do not think that Pound always speaks the truth in his works. But he is always trying to and is always fanatically convinced of what he is saying. For the conviction and emotional tonality alone this work is worth reading. Pound rages on the page and you can feel it. Reading it can be like getting shouted at for an hour. He also finds sympathy for some and you feel his description of them as a close friend relating a nostalgic tale. He can also be grim, and his words seem the perfect eulogy for Western Civilization. Reading it is like getting pummeled! Yet with each struggle one comes out feeling a desire to know more about the world and to search out truth.
When I first opened the Cantos, I felt that they were not well written, because the writing is choppy, in places it seems haphazard and sloppy. One can also read his 'Guide to Culture' and find that it reads like a notebook; not for public consumption. However, Pound's power does not lie with his 'technical' skill. There I would look perhaps to Louis Zukofsky, whose style and thought was similar, but whose technique is profound and impeccable. By contrast, Pound gives the impression of writing with incredible haste and bluster, as if fighting with his life to complete this work before his death. There is no real pattern to all of the cantos. It probably should be read more as a collection of poems on similar themes than in a Dantesque sort of way. But you see the unfolding of Pound's wild and weird life as the Cantos unfold, and his intellect and passions fight against the world that would ultimately defeat him. The cantos are not written to be accepted technically; they are about teaching life (Pound would say wisdom; APPLIED knowledge) and about truth, and not about words.
Reading Pound, one feels the weight of civic responsibility. Pound rages at what he sees rending Western Civilization from its roots. He discloses history by mentioning it, using events as metaphors, as expressions, as examples of his points, and in doing this he expects you to know them. Pound's poetry convicts one to read Dante, to read Homer, to read the Troubadours. And if you took nothing more away from that Cantos than that, that isn't bad. But you see in this work someone who is absolutely dedicated to how he felt the world should be. There is no apathy here. We can all stand to nod to Pound's conviction. I do not agree with him on many issues (although some I do), but I think that even if one disagreed on all counts with Pound, they could take from the Cantos the fervor and mission of a man dedicated to changing the world for what he saw as the better. You can still feel his intent and intensity on these pages. I think that as long as people read it, they will. Read this.
Rating: 5
Summary: Worth the effort
Comment: The Cantos are not easy to read. Furthermore, there are parts of the work - in some cases, dozens of pages long - that are a complete waste of time, Pound being hopelessly self-indulgent.
Having said all that, studded here and there throughout this big thick difficult book you will find some of the most beautiful poetry ever written.
I once seduced a beautiful but previously-unattainable woman by taking her to a sunlit park and reading to her from the Pisan Cantos in the slanting sun. Which is what poetry should be all about, right?
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Title: A Companion to the Cantos of Ezra Pound by Carroll F. Terrell ISBN: 0520082877 Publisher: University of California Press Pub. Date: June, 1993 List Price(USD): $39.95 |
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Title: A Guide to the Cantos of Ezra Pound, Revised Edition by William Cookson ISBN: 0892552468 Publisher: Persea Books Pub. Date: December, 2002 List Price(USD): $37.95 |
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Title: Pound Era by Hugh Kenner ISBN: 0520024273 Publisher: University of California Press Pub. Date: September, 1973 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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Title: ABC of Reading by Ezra Pound ISBN: 0811201511 Publisher: New Directions Publishing Pub. Date: June, 1960 List Price(USD): $11.95 |
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Title: Poems and Translations (Library of America, 144) by Ezra Pound, Richard Sieburth ISBN: 1931082413 Publisher: Library of America Pub. Date: 09 October, 2003 List Price(USD): $45.00 |
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