BOOKS BY EZRA POUND
63 lines✦
ROVENÇA, being poems selected from Personae, Exultations, andCanzoniere. (Small, Maynard, Boston, 1910) THE SPIRIT OF ROMANCE: An attempt to define somewhat the charmof the pre-renaissance literature of Latin-Europe. (Dent,London, 1910; and Dutton, New York) THE SONNETS AND BALLATE OF GUIDO CAVALCANTI. (Small, Maynard,Boston, 1912) RIPOSTES. (Swift, London, 1912; and Mathews, London, 1913) DES IMAGISTES: An anthology of the Imagists, Ezra Pound,Aldington, Amy Lowell, Ford Maddox Hueffer, and others GAUDIER-BRZESKA: A memoir. (John Lane, London and New York,1916) NOH: A study of the Classical Stage of Japan with ErnestFenollosa. (Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 1917; and Macmillan,London, 1917) LUSTRA with Earlier Poems. (Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 1917) PAVANNES AHD DIVISIONS. (Prose. In preparation: Alfred A. Knopf,New York) EZRA POUND: HIS METRIC AND POETRY I "All talk on modern poetry, by people who know," wrote Mr. CarlSandburg in _Poetry_, "ends with dragging in Ezra Poundsomewhere. He may be named only to be cursed as wanton andmocker, poseur, trifler and vagrant. Or he may be classed asfilling a niche today like that of Keats in a preceding epoch.The point is, he will be mentioned." This is a simple statement of fact. But though Mr. Pound is wellknown, even having been the victim of interviews for Sundaypapers, it does not follow that his work is thoroughly known.There are twenty people who have their opinion of him for everyone who has read his writings with any care. Of those twenty,there will be some who are shocked, some who are ruffled, somewho are irritated, and one or two whose sense of dignity isoutraged. The twenty-first critic will probably be one who knowsand admires some of the poems, but who either says: "Pound isprimarily a scholar, a translator," or "Pound's early verse wasbeautiful; his later work shows nothing better than the itch foradvertisement, a mischievous desire to be annoying, or achildish desire to be original." There is a third type ofreader, rare enough, who has perceived Mr. Pound for some years,who has followed his career intelligently, and who recognizesits consistency. This essay is not written for the first twenty critics ofliterature, nor for that rare twenty-second who has just beenmentioned, but for the admirer of a poem here or there, whoseappreciation is capable of yielding him a larger return. If thereader is already at the stage where he can maintain at once thetwo propositions, "Pound is merely a scholar" and "Pound ismerely a yellow journalist," or the other two propositions,"Pound is merely a technician" and "Pound is merely a prophet ofchaos," then there is very little hope. But there are readers ofpoetry who have not yet reached this hypertrophy of the logicalfaculty; their attention might be arrested, not by an outburstof praise, but by a simple statement. The present essay aimsmerely at such a statement. It is not intended to be either abiographical or a critical study. It will not dilate upon"beauties"; it is a summary account of ten years' work inpoetry. The citations from reviews will perhaps stimulate thereader to form his own opinion. We do not wish to form it forhim. Nor shall we enter into other phases of Mr. Pound'sactivity during this ten years; his writings and views on artand music; though these would take an important place in anycomprehensive biography.
✦