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Post subject: RE: Re: Pound
 Posted: Nov 07, 2006 - 10:49 PM
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Newbie
Joined: Jul 11, 2006
Posts: 1
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Ezras poem is wonderful.
my little poem of the moment
the mists surface over the forces of the sea
I look ahead to see reflections of me
ice cold waters like the mourning mermaids under the moon
Catch a glimps of the light that dissapears too soon |
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Post subject: RE: Re: Pound
Posted: Oct 31, 2006 - 07:53 PM
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Directed Jiwa
Joined: Mar 29, 2004
Posts: 45
Location: London, England
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Sorry:
apparently TSE relied on a lot of support to finalise even his later poems include the numerous quotes of former poets absorbed into his writing-
should read
apparently TSE relied on a lot of support to finalise even his later poems, including the numerous quotes of former poets he absorbed into his writing-
and
Ezra said of Eliot later: ' mowed the lawn for him so he could put up his doll's house'
is
Ezra said of Eliot later: '(we) mowed the lawn for him so he could put up his doll's house'
the 'we' were the movement other poets interested in the same things as eliot in who constellated around pound during their time spent closely together. |
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Post subject: Re: Pound
Posted: Oct 31, 2006 - 07:47 PM
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Directed Jiwa
Joined: Mar 29, 2004
Posts: 45
Location: London, England
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He did a lot of stuff: most notably in my mind the cantos
He is very obscure and gets lost in his own personal myth-weaving
in the cantos particularly but hes very good for beauty:
these lines are from Envoi:
...Tell her that goes
With song upon her lips
But sings not out the song, nor knows
The maker of it, some other mouth
May be as fair as hers
Might, in new ages gain her worshippers
When our two dusts with Wallers have been laid
Siftings on siftings on oblivion
Till change hath broken down
All things save beauty alone
He was an invisible co-author (virtually) of T S Eliot's "The Wasteland"
-apparently TSE relied on a lot of support to finalise even his later poems include the numerous quotes of former poets absorbed into his writing-
Ezra said of Eliot later: ' mowed the lawn for him so he could put up his doll's house'
But then Pound was prone to his own indulgences, eg voiciferous support of Nazis in WW2.
But then again he indulged to support struggling artists like Lawrence, Joyce, Eliot, hilda doolittle et al so they could succeed where they may not have been able to otherwise.
He did a lot of translation work with anglo-saxon poems written in old english (another language, virtually) then later the same with chinese poems by rihaku. This was in an attempt to revive old writing traditions
and/or to learn from them in the process for his own sake.
The Pisan Cantos (Part of the Cantos series of poems) are famous for expressing regret at his mistakes re: ww2 written whilst he was in a tiny cage in the 'death camps' for prisoners of war in Pisa. They are very powerful, but almost psychotic in their dreaming lines of thought: ep trying to grapple with his monumental mistakes and, poetically, searching to justify himself, i think, at times. But he can't.
This a famous bit from Canto LXXXI:
What thou lovest well remains,
the rest is dross
What thou lov'st well shall not be reft from thee
What thou lov'st well is thy true heritage
Whose world, or mine or theirs
or is it of none?
First came the seen, then thus the palpable
Elysium, though it were in the halls of hell,
What thou lovest well is thy true heritage
What thou lov'st well shall not be reft from thee
The ant's a centaur in his dragon world.
Pull down thy vanity, it is not man
Made courage, or made order, or made grace,
Pull down thy vanity, I say pull down.
Learn of the green world what can be thy place
In scaled invention or true artistry,
Pull down thy vanity,
Paquin pull down!
The green casque has outdone your elegance.
"Master thyself, then others shall thee beare"
Pull down thy vanity
Thou art a beaten dog beneath the hail,
A swollen magpie in a fitful sun,
Half black half white
Nor knowst'ou wing from tail
Pull down thy vanity
How mean thy hates
Fostered in falsity,
Pull down thy vanity,
Rathe to destroy, niggard in charity,
Pull down thy vanity,
I say pull down.
But to have done instead of not doing
This is not vanity
To have, with decency, knocked
That a Blunt should open
To have gathered from the air a live tradition
or from a fine old eye the unconquered flame
this is not vanity.
Here error is all in the not done,
all in the diffidence that faltered . . .'
"To have gathered from the air a live tradition..the fine old eye...unconquered flame" etc. refer to his obsession with higher cultural values and his actions supporting the 'catholico' mussolini culture
of Italy. So: still hanging on to his ideals but also expressing regret.
Anyway, I think I have wittered enough
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Post subject: RE: Poem about Ezra Pound
Posted: Oct 31, 2006 - 01:31 PM
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Jiwa Dancer
Joined: Oct 15, 2006
Posts: 18
Location: Langley, British Columbia, canada
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beautiful and powerful
makes me want to read his poetry. where to start?
a lot of it is so obscure.
sjahari |
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Post subject: Poem about Ezra Pound
Posted: Oct 31, 2006 - 07:16 AM
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Directed Jiwa
Joined: Mar 29, 2004
Posts: 45
Location: London, England
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Hiya I have learned my lesson about my last post...
I wrote this quite quickly as a sort of sketch-of-an-impression
of ep after reading about his life,misadventures etc. at the end of ww2
I think he was a very foolish man to buy into the anti-semitism on the basis of all the faux-romantic prejudice against them in Italy and peoples heads. But he was a very powerful writer. A complex man.
For Ezra Pound
(Oversentimental?)
A monument to life, that
Collapsed in winter-
Your light survived;
Left in embers, fire’s rubble,
Old man’s eyes-
A bright deep stir
Of weathered fire
Stokes Old Ezra, survivor,
Burning stump
On Europe’s pyre. |
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