Product Description

1st paper edtn, incl English tr of Canto LXXII

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #39793 in Books
• Published on: 1996-06
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 824 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780811213264
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
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Review
Addendum For Canto 100
Canto 1
Canto 10
Canto 100
Canto 101
Canto 102
Canto 103
Canto 104
Canto 105
Canto 106
Canto 107
Canto 108
Canto 109
Canto 11
Canto 110
Canto 111 (notes Therefor)
Canto 112 (therefrom)
Canto 113
Canto 114
Canto 116
Canto 12
Canto 13
Canto 14
Canto 15
Canto 16
Canto 17
Canto 18
Canto 19
Canto 2
Canto 20
Canto 21
Canto 22
Canto 23
Canto 24
Canto 25
Canto 26
Canto 27
Canto 28
Canto 29
Canto 3
Canto 30
Canto 31
Canto 32
Canto 33
Canto 34
Canto 35
Canto 36
Canto 37
Canto 38
Canto 39
Canto 4
Canto 40
Canto 41
Canto 42
Canto 43
Canto 44
Canto 45
Canto 46
Canto 47
Canto 48
Canto 49
Canto 5
Canto 50
Canto 51
Canto 52
Canto 53
Canto 54
Canto 55
Canto 56
Canto 57
Canto 58
Canto 59
Canto 6
Canto 60
Canto 61
Canto 62
Canto 63
Canto 64
Canto 65
Canto 66
Canto 67
Canto 68
Canto 69
Canto 7
Canto 70
Canto 71
Canto 72
Canto 74 (the Pisan Cantos)
Canto 75 (the Pisan Cantos)
Canto 76 (the Pisan Cantos)
Canto 77 (the Pisan Cantos)
Canto 78 (the Pisan Cantos)
Canto 79 (the Pisan Cantos)
Canto 8
Canto 80 (the Pisan Cantos)
Canto 81 (the Pisan Cantos)
Canto 82 (the Pisan Cantos)
Canto 83 (the Pisan Cantos)
Canto 84
Canto 85
Canto 86
Canto 87
Canto 88
Canto 89
Canto 9
Canto 90
Canto 91
Canto 92
Canto 93
Canto 94
Canto 95
Canto 96
Canto 97
Canto 98
Canto 99
Fragment (1966)
Notes For Canto 117 Et Seq.
The Scientists Are In Terror
-- Table of Poems from Poem Finder®

Collection of poems by Ezra Pound, who began writing these philosophical reveries in 1915. The first were published in Poetry magazine in 1917; through the decades the writing of cantos gradually became Pound's major poetic occupation, and the last were published in 1968. The complete edition of The Cantos (1970) consists of 117 sections. In his early cantos Pound offered personal, lyrical reactions to such writers as Homer, Ovid, Dante, and Remy de Gourmont, as well as to sundry politicians and economists. The early verses include memories of his teenage trips to Europe. The Pisan Cantos (1948), written while Pound was incarcerated--first in a prison camp for war criminals and later in a hospital for the criminally insane--were among the most admired sections of the poem; they won a Bollingen Prize in 1949. -- The Merriam-Webster Encylopedia of Literature

Customer Reviews

A stunning treasure
"Hugh Selwyn Mauberley" was the first Pound's poem I read and I fell in the net of the deep beauty of Pound's works becoming an enthusiastic student of him. A lot of stupidities has been told against his verses, but the authentic poetry provides itself the stunning evidence that can outlast all the poisonous criticism. Pound was a giant as one of the reviewers of this page has said.
It is true that Pound wrote some verses in Italian, Greek,... and used chinese ideograms as constructive elements of his "Cantos" (his great masterpiece) and this is not a shortcoming but a necessity. "Poetry" told once T.S.Elliot "can communicate before being understood". This is the case of Pound's poetry. Words and fragments in different languages are used not as superfluous ornaments but in order to articulate a strong feeling and providing pleasure to "the expert". The "non-expert" is attracted also by the surroundings of these elements and the imaginist grounds of each "Canto". It's just poetry! To convince of that I copy here some verses of the Cantos

"nothing matters but the quality
of the affection
in the end"
(Canto LXXVI)

"Pull down thy vanity.
Thou art a beaten dog beneath the hail"
[...]
"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"
[...]
"The ant's a centaur in his dragon world"
(Canto LXXXI)

"The valley is thick with leaves, with leaves, the trees,
The sunlight glitters, glitters a-top,
Like a fish-scale roof,
Like the church roof in Poictiers
If it where gold.
Beneath it, beneath it
Not a ray, not a slivver, not a spare disk of sunlight;
Flaking the black, soft water;[...]
Ivory dipping in silver
Shadow'd, o'ershadow'd
Ivory dipping in silver
Not a splotch, not a lost shatter of sunlight"
(Canto IV)

The latter are only some few examples you can find in his work, where each word is always (almost) necessary and not superfluous.

Fury and Conviction.
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.

To Mr. Meyerhofer,
Ezra Pound is the greatest American poet.

I love your condemnation of him. And I do not wish to thought of as sarcastic because the controversy is half of the aura about Mr. Pound's dynamic presence in the poetry of the past century.

Robert Graves called Pound a charlatan and I do not know if he is correct. If he is correct than all charlatans must attain to the greatness of Ezra Loomis Pound.

The Cantos of Ezra Pound is not an epic, it is not a notebook of any sort.

And it is relevant to the times in which it was written.

"Make it new." said Pound.

He made it new by gathering the limbs of osiris, resurecting old poets and crowning new ones. He lived in history while he was still alive. He reminds me of myself sometimes.
The Cantos was relevant but one must read between the lines to see that it was relevant. Canto XLV for instance, the famous litany agains Usury, is in particular rlevant to the times it was published, 1937. The Great Depression still upon the US and banks failing, Pound sought to condemn the practice of usury, not saying that it was going on, but as a warning that this is how bad could get worse.

with usura, sin against nature,
is thy bread ever more of stale rags
is thy bread dry as paper,
with no mountain wheat, no strong flour

With those lines, I picture the breadlines stretching around streetcorners with dark looking men, ashen gray, all with rotting overcoats up to their small red eyes. I picture the people starving because of this strange practice of usury, not just during the Depression, but all through time.

Here is yet another theme that is relevant during the time the Cantos were published, human nature being the same so history repeats itself. Pound was trying to prove this by pointing to models for a better future, Confucius, and Pier della Francesca, Pietro Lombardo.

The fact that Pound knew so many languages, translated much, is just incredible. We clearly had a genius in the nuthouse during that vacuous time.
Take the first Canto as an example of Pound's immense Godlike talent.

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 sheeo aboard her, and our bodies also
Heavy with weeping, and winds from sternward
Bore us out onward with bellying canvas,
Circe's this craft, the trim coifed goddess.

I remember when I first read those lines and I was immediately pulled into the work itself and the poetry of Mr. Pound. His controversial anti-semitism, his support of the regime of Mussolini, the absurd trial he had to take for treason against the US (the cage he was placed in, exposed to the elements) and the long internment in the House of Bedlam, St. Elizabeth's Mental Hospital in Washington D.C. from 1946 - 1958. I don't think there is one aspect of the thought and the writings of Ezra Pound that do not facinate me and have taught me how to compose poetry.

So sir, I must say that I have never read the two poets you have named but if they are anything like what I have a feeling they are, they are vastly inferior to the mighty voice of Pound (sounded like a Scottish goat by the way if you were wondering, funny and haunting)

You will probably never read these words so I close by saying that Ezra Pound is my idol poet. I have never read anything that had kept me so captivated and inspired me so. I hope my words shall be read and taken into consideration and be understood.

Thank you.