http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D3IpkOZjyVw
It is impossible to even begin such a description. The best that we can do is make the attempt.
Let us turn to Canto 1…
Why Homer? Pound is writing the modern epic, mirroring Homer, using Homeric heros and backgrounds in order to situate the modern reader inside the world of the past. He goes back inside the past in order to better understand the present condition of man. The poet seeks answers from the past, perhaps only the past can explain the modern condition.
The basic plot-summary is that the narrator (our modern Odysseus) goes, with his crew, to the underworld. He goes in hopes of calling upon the dead so that he can consult them about the future. From the beginning of the Cantos, two worlds are presented- the world of the living and the world of the dead. This mirrors the poet’s task since he too moves between past traditions and present conditions.
Canto XLV
“Nothing written for pay is worth printing. Only what has been written against the market.” – Ezra Pound
Usury=a charge for the use of purchasing power, levied without regard to production; often without regard to the possibilities of production. Usury is, simply put, making money out of nothing.
For Pound this was the ultimate “evil,” if you will, a sin against nature. Usury kills everything, especially art: “with usura/seeth no man Gonzaga his heirs and his concubines/no picture is made to endure nor to live with” (11-12). Usury stunts development since it takes over all of production and contaminates the world through the illusion of greatness.
Questions/Thoughts: How can poetry be a “natural production”? Why would Pound’s Cantos be considered “more natural” than the work of other poets? For example, he does not translate anything, do you think that by leaving language in its “natural” state the poet is trying to preserve this organic nature he so devoutly believes in? In the Cantos he does not define anything for us, leaving all the names and places undefined, allowing them to “naturally” roam on the pages… what would Pound consider Usura in relation to art?
Please write out some thoughts or ideas you had when reading the Cantos… what is Pound trying to do overall in the ones that we have read? What about Canto CXX, which appears as a fragment, using very understandable language (for once)? Why do you think he included it in his overall creation? What does he want to be forgiven for?
Also, pick one of the Cantos we read for class and try to do a close reading of a few lines, try forming some summary about those lines to share with the class Tuesday. Come prepared with questions or concerns, the Cantos are INCREDIBLY difficult so do not get discouraged, try to at least come up with some themes with relate to Modernism.
I think that part of what is so special about Pound’s Cantos is the fact that he does not translate anything. I think that this contributes to the so-called “natural” feeling of his poetry. When words are translated, there always seems to be some sort of loss of meaning, or the meaning gets changed. Even though Pound uses many allusions that can get very confusing, I think he has a reason for doing this, and would rather the reader not get caught up in understanding every single allusion, but rather, getting a good sense of the overall image that the words convey. In the Cantos, Pound uses imagism by choosing his words very carefully and used clear, sharp language to convey the images in the poems.
Ezra leaves things undefined for us so we are able to produce our own thinkings/definitions. He allows us to define our own thoughts rather than become biased to “usury”. Something natural grows and moves without specific direction, and this is how Pound desires us to think.
Poetry can be a natural production if it is something an author does when it comes to him. Like all forms of art, it cannot be forced. I use the example of music group Pink Floyd. When their chief song writer, Roger Waters, left the band, another band member tried to lead the group, but his new music was not received well: everyone knew it was forced. As opposed to making music just to make music (art for art’s sake), music was made for other reasons, which inhibited the band from making any forward progress. I think this is what Pound is describing, especially in regards to usury. He sees how art (music, poetry, painting, etc.) can be betrayed when art is created for reasons like money, fame, power, etc. When left to its natural form, art is pure and beautiful.