Ezra Pound in 1913

The Cantos by Ezra Pound is a long, incomplete poem in 120 sections, each of which is a canto. Most of it was written between 1915 and 1962, although much of the early work was abandoned and the early cantos, as finally published, date from 1922 onwards. It is a book-length work, widely considered to present formidable difficulties to the reader. Strong claims have been made for it as one of the most significant works of modernist poetry of the twentieth century. As in Pound's prose writing, the themes of economics, governance, and culture are integral to its content. Ezra pound in 1913 from http://www. ... Ezra pound in 1913 from http://www. ... Ezra Pound in 1913. ... Poetry (ancient Greek: poieo = create) is an art form in which human language is used for its aesthetic qualities in addition to, or instead of, its notional and semantic content. ... A canto is a significant section of a long poem or the highest part in a piece of choral music. ... Mountebanks ... (19th century - 20th century - 21st century - more centuries) Decades: 1900s 1910s 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s The 20th century lasted from 1901 to 2000 in the Gregorian calendar (often from (1900 to 1999 in common usage). ... Buyers bargain for good prices while sellers put forth their best front in Chichicastenango Market, Guatemala. ... The word culture, from the Latin colo, -ere, with its root meaning to cultivate, generally refers to patterns of human activity and the symbolic structures that give such activity significance. ...

The most striking feature of the text, to a casual browser, is the inclusion of Chinese characters as well as quotations in European languages other than English. Recourse to scholarly commentaries is almost inevitable for a close reader. The range of allusion to historical events is very broad, and abrupt changes occur with the minimum of stage directions. 漢字 Chinese character in hànzì, hanja, kanji. ... In literary criticism, close reading describes the careful, sustained interpretation of a brief passage of text. ...

There is also a wide geographical spread; Pound added to his earlier interests in the classical Mediterranean culture and East Asia selective topics from medieval and early modern Italy and Provence, the beginnings of the United States, England of the seventeenth century, and details from Africa he had obtained from Leo Frobenius. References left without explanation abound. The Mediterranean Sea is an intercontinental sea positioned between Europe to the north, Africa to the south and Asia to the east, covering an approximate area of 2. ... Geographic scope of East Asia East Asia is a subregion of Asia that can be defined in either geographical or cultural terms. ... The Middle Ages formed the middle period in a traditional schematic division of European history into three ages: the classical civilization of Antiquity, the Middle Ages, and modern times. ... Provence is a former Roman province and is now a region of southeastern France, located on the Mediterranean Sea adjacent to Frances border with Italy. ... Royal motto (French): Dieu et mon droit (Translated: God and my right) Englands location (dark green) within the United Kingdom (light green), with the Republic of Ireland (blue) to its west Languages English Capital London Largest city London Area – Total Ranked 1st UK 130,395 km² Population – Total (mid... (16th century - 17th century - 18th century - more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 17th century was that century which lasted from 1601-1700. ... Africa is the worlds second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia. ... Leo Frobenius (29 June 1873 - 9 August 1938) was an ethnologist and archaeologist and a major figure in German ethnography. ...

Controversy

The Cantos has always been a controversial work, initially so because of the experimental nature of the writing. The controversy has intensified since 1940 when Pound's very public stance on the war in Europe and his support for Mussolini's fascism became widely known. Much critical discussion of the poem has focused on the relationship between, on the one hand, the economic thesis on usura, Pound's anti-Semitism, his adulation of Confucian ideals of government and his attitude towards fascism, and, on the other, passages of lyrical poetry and the historical scene-setting that he performed with his 'ideographic' technique. At one end of the spectrum, George P. Elliot has drawn a parallel between Pound and Adolph Eichmann based on their anti-Semitism (in an essay called Poet of Many Voices reprinted in Sullivan) while at the other Marjorie Perloff places Pound's anti-Semitism in a wider context by pointing up the political views of many of his contemporaries and says "We have to try to understand why and not say let's get rid of Ezra Pound, who also happens to be one of the greatest poets of the 20th C." In another exercise in contextualisation, Wendy Stallard Flory made a close study of the poem and concluded that it contains, in all, seven passages of anti-Semitic sentiment in the 803 pages of the edition she used (Flory (1999)). Benito Mussolini created a fascist state through the use of propaganda, total control of the media and disassembly of the working democratic government. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... Usury (pronounced //, from the Latin usuria, demanding in return for a loan a greater amount than was borrowed) was defined originally as charging a fee for the use of money. ... The Eternal Jew: 1937 German poster. ... Confucianism (儒家 Pinyin: rújiā The School of the Scholars), sometimes translated as the School of Literati, is an East Asian ethical, religious and philosophical system originally developed from the teachings of Confucius. ... Adolf Eichmann (March 19, 1906 — June 1, 1962) was a high-ranking official in Nazi Germany, and served as an Obersturmbannführer in the S.S.. He was largely responsible for the logistics of the extermination of millions of people during the Jews, which was called the final solution (Endlösung). ... Ezra Pound in 1913 The Cantos by Ezra Pound is a long, incomplete poem in 120 sections, each of which is a canto. ... Marjorie Perloff is a poetry critic and professor emerita of English literature at Stanford University. ... Ezra Pound in 1913 The Cantos by Ezra Pound is a long, incomplete poem in 120 sections, each of which is a canto. ...

Pound has always had serious if select defenders and disciples. Louis Zukofsky was both, and also Jewish; according to William Cookson he defended Pound on the basis of personal knowledge from anti-Semitism on the level of human exchange, even though, as reported by Basil Bunting, their correspondence contained some of Pound's offensive views. What is more, Zukofsky's similarly formidable but distinctive long poem "A" follows in its ambitious scope the model of The Cantos. The cover of the 1978 edition of Zukofskys long poem A. Louis Zukofsky (January 23, 1904 - May 12, 1978) was one of the most important second-generation American modernist poets. ... Jews (Hebrew: יהודים, Yehudim) are followers of Judaism or, more generally, members of the Jewish people (also known as the Jewish nation, or the Children of Israel), an ethno-religious group descended from the ancient Israelites and converts who joined their religion. ... William Cookson (May 8, 1939–January 2, 2003) was a British poet, writer on poetry and literary editor, known for his influential poetry magazine Agenda and his guide to The Cantos of Ezra Pound, of whom he was a follower. ... Basil Cheesman Bunting (March 3, 1900 – 1985) was a British modernist poet. ...

The section he wrote at the end of World War II, a composition started while he was interned by American occupying forces in Italy, has become known as The Pisan Cantos, and is the part of the work most often viewed as free-standing. It was awarded the first Bollingen Prize in 1948. The repercussions were widespread, since this in effect honoured a poet who had lost all stature as a citizen of his native country, and was also diagnosed as prey to a serious and disabling mental illness. Combatants Allies: Poland, British Commonwealth, France/Free France, Soviet Union, United States, China, and others Axis Powers: Germany, Italy, Japan, and others Casualties Military dead: 17 million Civilian dead: 33 million Total dead: 50 million Military dead: 8 million Civilian dead: 4 million Total dead: 12 million World War II... The Bollingen Prize, awarded every two years by the Bollingen Foundation, is a prestigious literary honor bestowed on a poet in recognition of the best book of new verse within the last two years, or for lifetime achievement. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ...

Structure

As it lacks any plot or definite ending, The Cantos can appear on first reading to be chaotic or structureless. One early critic, R.P. Blackmur, wrote, in his 1934 essay Masks of Ezra Pound (reprinted in Sullivan) "The work of Ezra Pound has been for most people almost as difficult to understand as Soviet Russia… The Cantos are not complex, they are complicated". The issue of incoherence of the work is reflected in the equivocal note sounded in the final two more-or-less completed cantos; according to the William Cookson guide (p.264), they show that Pound has been unable to make his materials cohere, while they insist that the world itself still does cohere. Pound and T. S. Eliot had both approached the subject of fragmentation of human experience. While Eliot was writing, and Pound editing, The Waste Land, Pound had said that he looked upon experience as similar to a series of iron filings on a mirror. Each is disconnected, but the iron filings are drawn into the shape of a rose by the presence of a magnet. The Cantos, then, can be seen as taking a position between the mythic unity of Eliot's poem and Joyce's flow of consciousness and attempting to work out how history (as fragment) and personality (as shattered by modern existence) can cohere in the "field" of poetry. Richard Palmer Blackmur (1904-1965) was an American literary critic and poet. ... Ezra Pound in 1913 The Cantos by Ezra Pound is a long, incomplete poem in 120 sections, each of which is a canto. ... William Cookson (May 8, 1939–January 2, 2003) was a British poet, writer on poetry and literary editor, known for his influential poetry magazine Agenda and his guide to The Cantos of Ezra Pound, of whom he was a follower. ... T.S. Eliot (by E.O. Hoppe, 1919) Thomas Stearns Eliot, OM (September 26, 1888 – January 4, 1965) was an American-born British poet, dramatist, and literary critic, whose works, such as The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock, The Waste Land, and Four Quartets, are considered defining achievements of... T. S. Eliot (by E. O. Hoppe, 1919) The Waste Land (sometimes mistakenly written as The Wasteland) is a highly influential 433-line modernist poem by T. S. Eliot. ... Iron filings in a magnetic field generated by a bar magnet A magnet is an object that has a magnetic field. ...

Nevertheless, there are indications in Pound's other writings that there may have been some formal plan underlying the work. In his 1918 essay A Retrospect, Pound wrote "I think there is a 'fluid' as well as a 'solid' content, that some poems may have form as a tree has form, some as water poured into a vase. That most symmetrical forms have certain uses. That a vast number of subjects cannot be precisely, and therefore not properly rendered in symmetrical forms". Critics like Hugh Kenner who take a more positive view of The Cantos have tended to follow this hint, seeing the poem as a poetic record of Pound's life and reading that sends out new branches as new needs arise with the final poem, like a tree, displaying a kind of unpredictable inevitability. Hugh Kenner (January 7, 1923 – November 24, 2003), Canadian literary scholar, critic, & professor. ...

Another approach to the structure of the work is based on a letter Pound wrote to his father in the 1920s, in which he stated that his plan was:

A. A. Live man goes down into world of dead.

C. B. 'The repeat in history.'

B. C. The 'magic moment' or moment of metamorphosis, bust through from quotidian into 'divine or permanent world.' Gods, etc.

[The letters ABC/ACB indicate the sequences in which the concepts could be presented.] In the light of cantos written later than this letter, it would be possible to add other recurring motifs to this list, such as: periploi ('voyages around'); vegetation rituals such as the Eleusinian Mysteries; usura, banking and credit; and the drive towards clarity in art, such as the 'clear line' of Renaissance painting and the 'clear song' of the troubadours. The Eleusinian Mysteries were annual initiation ceremonies for the cult of Demeter and Persephone based at Eleusis in ancient Greece. ... A troubadour was a composer and performer of songs during the Middle Ages in Europe. ...

The poem's symbolic structure also makes use of an opposition between darkness and light. Images of light are used variously, and may represent neoplatonic ideas of divinity, the artistic impulse, love (both sacred and physical) and good governance, amongst other things. The moon is frequently associated in the poem with creativity, while the sun is more often found in relation to the sphere of political and social activity, although there is frequent overlap between the two. From the Rock Drill sequence on, the poem's effort is to merge these two aspects of light into a unified whole. Neoplatonism (also Neo-Platonism) is a school of philosophy that took shape in the 3rd century A.D. Based on the teachings of Plato and the Platonists, it contained enough unique interpretations of Plato that some view Neoplatonism as substantively different from what Plato wrote and believed. ...

The Cantos was initially published in the form of separate sections, each containing several cantos that were numbered sequentially using Roman numerals (except cantos 85-109, first published with Arabic numerals). The original publication dates for the groups of cantos are as given below. The complete collection of cantos was published together in 1987 (including a final short coda or fragment, dated 24 August 1966). In 2002 a bilingual edition of “Posthumous Cantos” (Canti postumi) appeared in Italy. This is a concise selection from the mass of drafts (circa 1915-1965) uncollected or unpublished by Pound, and contains many passages of intrinsic merit that also throw light on The Cantos as we have it. The system of Roman numerals is a numeral system originating in ancient Rome, and was adapted from Etruscan numerals. ... Numerals sans serif Arabic numerals, also known as Hindu-Arabic numerals, Indian numerals, Hindu numerals, European numerals, and Western numerals, are the most common symbolic representation of numbers around the world. ... Coda sign Coda (Italian for tail; from the Latin cauda), in music, is a passage which brings a movement or a separate piece to a conclusion through prolongation. ... August 24 is the 236th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (237th in leap years), with 129 days remaining. ... 1966 (MCMLXVI) was a common year starting on Saturday (the link is to a full 1966 calendar). ...

I – XVI

Published in 1924/5 as A Draft of XVI Cantos by the Three Mountains Press in Paris.

Portrait of Sigismondo Malatesta who built a temple so full of pagan works (Canto XI) (Portrait by Piero della Francesca)

Pound had been discussing the possibility of writing a long poem since around 1905, but work did not begin until sometime between 1912 and 1917, when the initial versions of the first three cantos of the proposed 'poem of some length' were published in the journal Poetry. In this version, the poem began very much as a direct address by the poet, not to the reader but to the ghost of Robert Browning. Pound came to realise that this need to be a controlling narrative voice was working against the revolutionary intent of his own poetic position, and these first three ur-cantos were soon abandoned and a new starting point sought. The answer was a Latin version of Homer's Odyssey by the Renaissance scholar Andreas Divus that Pound had bought in Paris sometime between 1906 and 1910. Using the metre and syntax of his 1911 version of the Anglo-Saxon poem The Seafarer, Pound made an English version of Divus' rendering of the Nekuia episode in which Odysseus and his companions sail to Hades in order to find out what their future holds. In using this passage to open the poem, Pound introduces a major theme; the excavating of the 'dead' past to illuminate both present and future. He also echoes Dante's opening to The Divine Comedy in which the poet also descends into hell to interrogate the dead. The canto concludes with some fragments from the Second Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite, in a Latin version by Georgius Dartona which Pound found in the Divus volume, followed by "So that:", an invitation to read on. William Augustus Bird (1888 - 1963) was an American journalist, now remembered for his hobby, the Three Mountains Press, a small press he ran while in Paris in the 1920s for the Consolidated Press Association. ... The Eiffel Tower, the international symbol of the city For other uses, see Paris (disambiguation). ... This image has been released into the public domain by the copyright holder, its copyright has expired, or it is ineligible for copyright. ... This image has been released into the public domain by the copyright holder, its copyright has expired, or it is ineligible for copyright. ... Portrait of Sigismondo Malatesta by Piero della Francesca Sigismondo Pandolfo Malatesta (1417 – 1468) (the wolf of Rimini) was lord of Rimini, Fano, and Cesena from 1432. ... The Baptism of Christ, 1442 (National Gallery, London) Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Piero della Francesca Piero della Francesca was an Italian artist of the Early Renaissance. ... Poetry, published in Chicago, Illinois, is one of the leading monthly poetry journals in the English-speaking world. ... Robert Browning Robert Browning (May 7, 1812 – December 12, 1889) was an English poet and playwright. ... Latin is an ancient Indo-European language originally spoken in the region around Rome called Latium. ... The Homère Caetani bust at the Louvre, a 2nd century Roman copy of a 2nd century BC Greek original. ... Odysseus and Nausicaä - by Charles Gleyre For other uses, see Odyssey (disambiguation). ... In the traditional view, the Renaissance is understood as an historical age that was preceded by the Middle Ages and followed by the Reformation. ... Andreas Divus was a Renaissance scholar whose translations of Homer were used by George Chapman in his translations of the Iliad and Odyssey and by Ezra Pound in his long poem The Cantos. ... The metre, or meter, is a measure of length, approximately equal to 3. ... Syntax, originating from the Greek words συν (syn, meaning co- or together) and τάξις (táxis, meaning sequence, order, arrangement), can in linguistics be described as the study of the rules, or patterned relations that govern the way the words in a sentence come together. ... The Anglo-Saxons refers collectively to the groups of Germanic tribes who achieved dominance in southern Britain from the mid-5th century, forming the basis for the modern English nation. ... Among the most interesting poems included in The Exeter Book are The Wanderer and The Seafarer, poems in which a first-person speaker tells of his exile and solitude. ... Odysseus and the Sirens. ... ... Dante in a fresco series of famous men by Andrea del Castagno, ca. ... Dante shown holding a copy of The Divine Comedy, next to the entrance to Hell, the seven terraces of Mount Purgatory and the city of Florence, with the spheres of Heaven above, in Michelinos fresco. ... Birth of Venus (a. ...

Canto II opens with some lines rescued from the ur-cantos in which Pound reflects on the indeterminacy of identity by setting side by side four different versions of the troubadour poet Sordello: Browning's poem of that name, the actual Sordello of flesh and blood, Pound's own version of the poet and the Sordello of the brief life appended to manuscripts of his poems. These lines are followed by a sequence of identity shifts involving a seal, the daughter of Lir and other figures associated with the sea: Eleanor of Aquitaine who, through a pair of Homeric epithets that echo her name, shifts into Helen of Troy, Homer with his ear for the 'sea surge', the old men of Troy who want to send Helen back over the sea, and an extended, imagistic retelling of the story of the abduction of Dionysus by sailors and his transformation of his abductors into dolphins. Although this last story is found in the Homeric Hymn to Dionysus, also contained in the Divus volume, Pound draws on the version in Ovid's poem Metamorphoses, thus introducing the world of ancient Rome into the poem. Sordello was a 13th-century Italian troubadour, born in Mantua. ... In Celtic mythology, Lir (the sea) was the god of the sea, father of Manannan mac Lir, Bran, Branwen and Manawydan by Penarddun and a son of Danu and Beli. ... Eleanor of Aquitaine Eleanor of Aquitaine (1122[1] – March 31, 1204) was one of the wealthiest and most powerful women in Europe during the High Middle Ages. ... Helen was the wife of Menelaus and reputed to be the most beautiful woman in the world, and her abduction by Paris brought about the Trojan War. ... Walls of the excavated city of Troy Troy (Ancient Greek Τροία Troia, also Ίλιον; Latin: Troia, Ilium; German: Troja) is a legendary city, center of the Trojan War, described in the Trojan War cycle, especially in the Iliad, one of the two epic poems attributed to Homer. ... Dionysus with a panther and satyr, in the Palazzo Altemps (Rome, Italy) Dionysus or Dionysos (Ancient Greek: Διώνυσος or Διόνυσος; also known as Bacchus in both Greek and Roman mythology and associated with the Italic Liber), the Thracian god of wine, represents not only the intoxicating power of wine, but also its... Engraved frontispiece of George Sandyss 1632 London edition of Publius Ovidius Naso (Sulmona, March 20, 43 BC â€“ Tomis, now Constanta AD 17) Roman poet known to the English-speaking world as Ovid, wrote on topics of love, abandoned women, and mythological transformations. ... Cover of George Sandyss 1632 edition of The Metamorphoses by the Roman poet Ovid is a poem in fifteen books that describes the creation and history of the world in terms of Greek and Roman mythology. ... City motto: Senatus Populusque Romanus – SPQR (The Senate and the People of Rome) Founded 21 April 753 BC (mythical), early 1st millennium BC (archaeological) Region Latium Area  - City Proper  1285 km² Population  - City (2004)  - Metropolitan  - Density (city proper) 2,553,873 almost 4,300,000 1. ...

The next 6 cantos (III-VII), again drawing heavily on Pound's Imagist past for their technique, are essentially based in the Mediterranean, drawing on classical mythology, Renaissance history, the world of the troubadours, Sappho's poetry, a scene from the legend of El Cid that introduces the theme of banking and credit, and Pound's own visits to Venice to create a textual collage saturated with neoplatonist images of clarity and light. Ezra Pound, one of the prime movers of Imagism. ... The Mediterranean Sea is an intercontinental sea positioned between Europe to the north, Africa to the south and Asia to the east, covering an approximate area of 2. ... Classical mythology usually refers to the religious legends and practices of classical antiquity: Greek mythology; Roman mythology; Greek religion; and Roman religion. ... In the traditional view, the Renaissance is understood as an historical age that was preceded by the Middle Ages and followed by the Reformation. ... A troubadour was a composer and performer of songs during the Middle Ages in Europe. ... Ancient Greek bust of Sappho the Eresian. ... Statue of El Cid Campeador in Burgos (Spain) Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar (c. ... For other uses, see Bank (disambiguation). ... Credit as a financial term, used in such terms as credit card, refers to the granting of a loan and the creation of debt. ... Venice (Italian: Venezia, Venetian: Venexia) , the city of canals, is the capital of the region of Veneto and of the province of Venice in Italy. ... Neoplatonism (also Neo-Platonism) is an ancient school of philosophy beginning in the 3rd century A.D. It was based on the teachings of Plato and Platonists; but it interpreted Plato in many new ways, such that Neoplatonism was quite different from what Plato taught, though not many Neoplatonists would... Clarity refers to ones ability to visualize an object or concept. ... Prism splitting light Light is electromagnetic radiation with a wavelength that is visible to the eye (visible light) or, in a technical or scientific context, electromagnetic radiation of wavelengths that are studied in the field of optics. ...

Cantos VIII - XI draw on the story of Sigismondo Malatesta, quattrocento poet, soldier, lord of Rimini and patron of the arts. Quoting extensively from primary sources, including Malatesta's letters, Pound especially focuses on the building of the church of San Francesco, also known as the Tempio Malatestiano. Designed by Leon Battista Alberti and decorated by artists including Piero della Francesca and Agostino di Duccio, this was a landmark Renaissance building, being the first church to use the Roman triumphal arch as part of its structure. For Pound, who spent a good deal of time seeking patrons for himself, Joyce, Eliot and a string of little magazines and small presses, the role of the patron was a crucial cultural question, and Malatesta is the first in a line of ruler-patrons to appear in The Cantos. Portrait of Sigismondo Malatesta by Piero della Francesca Sigismondo Pandolfo Malatesta (1417 – 1468) (the wolf of Rimini) was lord of Rimini, Fano, and Cesena from 1432. ... This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ... Rimini is a city in the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy and capital city of the Rimini Province. ... Leone Battista Alberti (February 1404 - 25th April 1472), Italian painter, poet, linguist, philosopher, cryptographer, musician, architect, and general Renaissance polymath . ... The Baptism of Christ, 1442 (National Gallery, London) Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Piero della Francesca Piero della Francesca was an Italian artist of the Early Renaissance. ... Agostino di Duccio (1418 - 1481) was an Italian early Renaissance sculptor. ... Arc de Triomphe, Paris The Gateway of India, Mumbai, India A triumphal arch is a structure in the shape of a monumental archway, usually built to celebrate a victory in war. ... James Augustine Aloysius Joyce (Irish name Séamas Seoighe; 2 February 1882 – 13 January 1941) was an expatriate Irish writer and poet, widely considered to be one of the most influential writers of the 20th century. ... T.S. Eliot (by E.O. Hoppe, 1919) Thomas Stearns Eliot, OM (September 26, 1888 – January 4, 1965) was an American-born British poet, dramatist, and literary critic, whose works, such as The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock, The Waste Land, and Four Quartets, are considered defining achievements of... A literary magazine is a periodical devoted to literature in a broad sense — including the short story, poetry and essay — and also literary criticism, book reviews, biographical profiles of authors, interviews, letters and gossip. ... The Dun Emer Press in 1903 with Elizabeth Yeats working the hand press Small press is a term often used to describe publishers who typically specialize in genre fiction, or limited edition books or magazines. ...

Canto XII consists of three moral tales on the subject of profit. The first and third of these treat of the creation of profit ex nihilo by exploiting the money supply, comparing this activity with 'unnatural' fertility. The central parable contrasts this with wealth-creation based on the creation of useful goods. Canto XIII then introduces Confucius, or Kung, who is presented as the embodiment of the ideal of social order based on ethics. Ex nihilo is a Latin term meaning out of nothing. It is often used in conjunction with the term creation, as in creatio ex nihilo, meaning creation out of nothing. Due to the nature of this, the term is often used in philosophical or creationistic arguments, as a number of... The examples and perspective in this article or section may not represent a worldwide view. ... Confucius (Chinese 孔夫子, transliterated Kong Fuzi or Kung-fu-tzu, literally Master Kong, traditionally September 28, 551 BCE–479 BCE) was a famous Chinese thinker and social philosopher, whose teachings deeply influenced East Asian life and thought. ... Ethics (from Greek ἦθος meaning custom) is the branch of axiology, one of the four major branches of philosophy, which attempts to understand the nature of morality; to distinguish that which is right from that which is wrong. ...

This section of The Cantos concludes with a vision of Hell. Cantos XIV and XV use the convention of the Divine Comedy to present Pound/Dante moving through a hell populated by bankers, newspaper editors, hack writers and other 'perverters of language' and the social order. In Canto XV, Plotinus takes the role of guide played by Virgil in Dante's poem. In Canto XVI, Pound emerges from Hell and into an earthly paradise where he sees some of the personages encountered in earlier cantos. The poem then moves to recollections of World War I, and of Pound's writer and artist friends who fought in it. These include Richard Aldington, Henri Gaudier-Brzeska, Wyndham Lewis, Ernest Hemingway and Fernand Leger, whose war memories the poem includes a passage from (in French). Finally, there is a transcript of Lincoln Steffens' account of the Russian Revolution. These two events, the war and revolution, mark a decisive break with the historic past, including the early modernist period when these writers and artists formed a more-or-less coherent movement. Medieval illustration of Hell in the Hortus deliciarum manuscript of Herrad of Landsberg (about 1180) Hell, according to many religious beliefs, is a place or a state of pain and suffering. ... Plotinus Plotinus ( Greek: Πλωτίνος)(ca. ... A sculpture of Virgil, probably from the 1st century AD. For other uses, see Virgil (disambiguation). ... Combatants Allies: Serbia, Russia, France, Romania, Belgium, British Empire, United States, Italy, and others Central Powers: Germany, Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria, Ottoman Empire Casualties Military dead: 5 million Civilian deaths: 3 million Total of dead: 8 million Military dead: 4 million Civilian deaths: 3 million Total dead: 7 million Spanish Flu... Richard Aldington (July 8, 1892 – July 27, 1962) was an English writer and poet. ... Henri Gaudier-Brzeska (4 October 1891 – 5 June 1915) was a French sculptor who developed a rough hewn, primitive style of direct carving. ... Wyndam Lewis in 1916 Percy Wyndham Lewis (November 18, 1882 – March 7, 1957) was a Canadian born British painter and author. ... Ernest Miller Hemingway (July 21, 1899 – July 2, 1961) was an American novelist, short story writer, and journalist. ... Joseph Fernand Henri Léger (February 4, 1881 - August 17, 1955) was an artist. ... Joseph Lincoln Steffens (April 6, 1866–August 9, 1936) was an American journalist and one of the most famous and influential practitioners of the journalistic style called muckraking. ... The Russian Revolution of 1917 was a series of political events in Russia, which, after the elimination of the Russian autocracy system, and the Provisional Government (Duma), resulted in the establishment of the Soviet power under the control of the Bolshevik party. ... This article focuses on the cultural movement labeled modernism or the modern movement. See also: Modernism (Roman Catholicism) or Modernist Christianity; Modernismo for specific art movement(s) in Spain and Catalonia. ...

XVII – XXX

XVII - XXVII published in 1924/5 as A Draft of XVI Cantos by the Three Mountains Press in Paris. Cantos I - XXX published in 1930 in A Draft of XXX Cantos by Nancy Cunard's Hours Press.

Venice: "Flat water before me, / and the trees growing in water, / Marble trunks out of stillness, / On past the palazzi, / in the stillness, The light now, not of the sun" (Canto XVII)

Originally, Pound conceived of Cantos XVII - XXVII as a group that would follow the first volume by starting with the Renaissance and ending with the Russian Revolution. He then added a further three cantos and the whole eventually appeared as A Draft of XXX Cantos in an edition of 200 copies. The major locus of these cantos is the city of Venice. William Augustus Bird (1888 - 1963) was an American journalist, now remembered for his hobby, the Three Mountains Press, a small press he ran while in Paris in the 1920s for the Consolidated Press Association. ... Nancy Clare Cunard (March 10, 1896 – March 17, 1965) was an English writer, editor and publisher, political activist and poet. ... Nancy Clare Cunard (March 10, 1896 – March 17, 1965) was an English writer, editor and publisher, political activist and poet. ... Gondola in Venice with Daniela Palacios. ... Gondola in Venice with Daniela Palacios. ...

Canto XVII opens with the words 'So that', echoing the end of Canto I, and then moves on to another Dionysus-related metamorphosis story. The rest of the canto is concerned with Venice, which is portrayed as a stone forest growing out of the water. Cantos XVIII and XIX return to the theme of financial exploitation, beginning with the Venetian explorer Marco Polo's account of Kublai Khan's paper money. Canto XIX deals mainly with those who profit from war, returning briefly to the Russian Revolution, and ends on the stupidity of wars and those who promote them. Marco Polo (September 15, 1254, Curzola, Dalmatia — January 8, 1324, Venice, Italy) was a Venetian trader and explorer who, together with his father Niccolò and his uncle Maffeo, was one of the first Westerners to travel the Silk Road to China (which he called Cathay) and visited the Great Khan... Kublai Khan, Khubilai Khan or the last of the Great Khans (September 23, [[1215] - February 18, 1294) (Mongolian: Хубилай хаан, Chinese: 忽必烈, also spelled as Kubilay Han in Turkic), was a Mongol military leader. ...

Canto XX opens with a grouping of phrases, words and images from Mediterranean poetry, ranging from Homer through Ovid, Propertius and Catullus to the Song of Roland and Arnaut Daniel. These fragments constellate to form an exemplum of what Pound calls 'clear song'. There follows another exemplum, this time of the linguistic scholarship that enables us to read these old poetries and the specific attention to words this study requires. Finally, this 'clear song' and intellectual activity is implicitly contrasted with the inertia and indolence of the lotus eaters, whose song completes the canto. There are references to the Malatesta family and to Borso d'Este, who tried to keep the peace between the warring Italian city states. Engraved frontispiece of George Sandyss 1632 London edition of Publius Ovidius Naso (Sulmona, March 20, 43 BC â€“ Tomis, now Constanta AD 17) Roman poet known to the English-speaking world as Ovid, wrote on topics of love, abandoned women, and mythological transformations. ... Sextus Aurelius Propertius was a Latin elegiac poet born between 57 BC and 46 BC in or near Mevania, who died in around 12 BC. Like Virgil and Ovid, Propertius was also a member of the poetic circle of neoteric poets which collected around Mæcenas. ... Gaius Valerius Catullus (ca. ... The Song of Roland (La Chanson de Roland) is an 11th century Old French epic poem about the Battle of Roncevaux Pass (or Roncesvalles) fought by Roland of the Brittany Marches and his fellow paladins. ... Arnaut Daniel was a Provençal troubadour of the 13th century, praised by Dante and called Grand Master of Love by Petrarch. ... Broadly conceived, linguistics is the study of human language, and a linguist is someone who engages in this study. ... Lotus-eaters beckon Odysseus and his men In Greek mythology, the Lotophagi (lotus-eaters) were a race of people from an island near Northern Africa dominated by lotus plants. ... A city-state is a region controlled exclusively by a city, and usually having sovereignty. ...

Canto XXI deals with the machinations of the Medici bank, especially with their effect on Venice. These are contrasted with the actions of Thomas Jefferson, who is shown as a cultured leader with an interest in the arts. A phrase from one of Sigismondo Malatesta's letters inserted into the Jefferson passage draws an explicit parallel between the two men, a theme that is to recur later in the poem. The next canto continues the focus on finance by introducing the Social Credit theories of C.H. Douglas for the first time. The Medici family was a powerful and influential Florentine family from the 13th to 17th century. ... Thomas Jefferson (April 13, 1743 N.S. – July 4, 1826) was the third President of the United States (1801–1809), principal author of the Declaration of Independence (1776), and one of the most influential Founding Fathers of the United States. ... Social Credit is an economic ideology and a social movement which started in the early 1920s. ... Major C. H. (Clifford Hugh) Douglas MIMechE, MIEE, (January 20, 1879-September 29, 1952) son of Hugh Douglas and Louisa Horfdern, was a Scottish engineer and pioneer of the Social credit concept. ...

Canto XXIII returns to the world of the troubadours via Homer and Renaissance neo-platonism. Pound saw Provençal culture as a nexus of survival of the old pagan beliefs, and the destruction of the Cathar stronghold at Montsegur at the end of the Albigensian Crusade is held up as an example of the tendency of authority to crush all such alternative cultures. The destruction of Mont Segur is implicitly compared with the destruction of Troy in the closing lines of the canto. Canto XXIV then returns to 15th century Italy and the peace-making d'Este family, again focusing on their Venetian activities and Niccolo d'Este's voyage to the Holy Land. Provençal (Prouvençau in Provençal language) is one of several dialects of the Romance language Occitan, which is spoken by a minority of people in southern France and other areas of France. ... Cathars being expelled from Carcassonne in 1209. ... Montségur is a commune of the Ariège département in France. ... The Albigensian Crusade or Cathar Crusade (1209 - 1229) was a 20-year military campaign initiated by the Roman Catholic Church to eliminate the religion practiced by the Cathars of Languedoc, which the Roman Catholic hierarchy considered apostasy. ... For Tolkiens fictional character, see Estë To know more about the city, see Este (city) The House of Este is a European princely dynasty. ... The phrase The Holy Land (Arabic الأرض المقدسة, al-Arḍ ul-Muqaddasah; Hebrew ארץ הקודש: Standard Hebrew Éreẓ haQodeÅ¡, Tiberian Hebrew ʾÉreá¹£ haqQāḏēš; Latin Terra Sancta) generally refers to Israel, otherwise known as Palestine (sometimes including Jordan, Syria and parts of Egypt). ...

Cantos XXV and XXVI draw on the Book of the Council Major in Venice and Pound's personal memories of the city. Anecdotes on Titian and Mozart deal with the relationship between artist and patron. Canto XXVII returns to the Russian Revolution, which is seen as being destructive, not constructive, and echoes the ruin of Eblis from Canto VI. XXVIII returns to the contemporary scene, with a passage on transatlantic flight. The last two cantos in the series return to the world of 'clear song'. In Canto XXIX, a story from their visit to the Provençal site at Excideuil contrasts Pound and Eliot on the subject of Christianity, with Pound implicitly rejecting that religion. Finally, the series closes with a glimpse of the printer Hieronymus Soncinus of Fano preparing to print the works of Petrarch. Titian. ... Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (January 27, 1756 – December 5, 1791) was one of the most significant and influential of all composers of Western classical music. ... Transatlantic flight is any flight of an aircraft, whether airplane, balloon or other device, which involves crossing the Atlantic Ocean -- with a starting point in North America or South America and ending in Europe or Africa, or vice versa. ... Christianity is a monotheistic religion centered on the life and teachings of Jesus as recounted in the New Testament. ... Fano (estimated 2003 population 58,041) is a town and [comune]] of the province of Pesaro and Urbino in the Marche region of Italy. ... From the c. ...

XXXI – XLI (XI New Cantos)

Thomas Jefferson, who was a new Sigismondo Malatesta, in Pound's view.

Published as Eleven New Cantos XXXI-XLI. New York: Farrar & Rinehart Inc., 1934.

The first four cantos of this volume (Cantos XXXI - XXXVI) use extensive quotations from the letters and other writings of Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, John Quincy Adams, Andrew Jackson, Martin Van Buren and others to deal with the emergence of the fledgling United States and, particularly, the American banking system. Canto XXXI opens with the Malatesta family motto Tempus loquendi, tempus tacendi (a time to speak, a time to be silent) to link again Jefferson and Sigismundo as individuals and the Italian and American 'rebirths' as historical movements. public domain. ... public domain. ... Thomas Jefferson (April 13, 1743 N.S. – July 4, 1826) was the third President of the United States (1801–1809), principal author of the Declaration of Independence (1776), and one of the most influential Founding Fathers of the United States. ... John Adams (October 30, 1735 – July 4, 1826) was the first (1789–1797) Vice President of the United States, and the second President of the United States, whose term lasted from 1797 to 1801. ... John Quincy Adams (July 11, 1767 – February 23, 1848) was an American lawyer, diplomat, politician, and President of the United States(March 4, 1825 – March 3, 1829). ... Andrew Jackson (March 15, 1767 – June 8, 1845) was the seventh President of the United States (1829-1837), first governor of Florida (1821), general of the Battle of New Orleans (1815), a founder of the Democratic Party, and the eponym of the era of Jacksonian democracy. ... Martin Van Buren (December 5, 1782 – July 24, 1862), nicknamed Old Kinderhook, was the eighth President of the United States. ...

Canto XXXV contrasts the dynamism of Revolutionary America with the 'general indefinite wobble' of the decaying aristocratic society of Mitteleuropa. This canto contains some distinctly unpleasant expressions of anti-Semitic opinions. Canto XXXVI opens with a translation of Cavalcanti's canzone Donna mi pregha ("A lady asks me"). This poem, a lyric meditation of the nature and philosophy of love, was a touchstone text for Pound. He saw it as an example of the post-Montsegur survival of the Provençal tradition of 'clear song', precision of thought and language, and nonconformity of belief. The canto then closes with the figure of the 9th century Irish philosopher and poet John Scotus Eriugena, who was an influence on the Cathars and whose writings were condemned as heretical in both the 11th and 13th centuries. Canto XXXVII then turns to Jackson, Van Buren, Nicholas Biddle, Alexander Hamilton and the Bank Wars and also contains a reference to the Peggy Eaton affair. Mitteleuropa (Middle-Europe) is a German term approximately equal to Central Europe. ... Derived from the Italian cantio, singing, a canzone is an Italian or Provençal song or ballad. ... A philosopher is a person who thinks deeply regarding people, society, the world, and/or the universe. ... A poet is some one who writes poetry. ... J. Scotus Eriugena commemorated on a Irish banknote, issued 1976-1993 Johannes Scotus Eriugena (ca. ... Nicholas Biddle Nicholas Biddle, (January 8, 1786 - February 27, 1844), American financier, was born and died in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. ... Alexander Hamilton (January 11, 1755 or 1757 – July 12, 1804) was an American politician, statesman, writer, lawyer, and soldier. ... Margaret Eaton (nee ONeale) (1799 - 1879) was the U.S. wife of John Henry Eaton, they married in 1829. ...

Canto XXXVIII opens with a quotation from Dante in which he accuses Albert of Germany of falsifying the coinage. The canto then turns to modern commerce and the arms trade and introduces Frobenius as "the man who made the tempest". There is also a passage on Douglas' account of the problem of purchasing power. Canto XXXIX returns to the island of Circe and the events before the voyage undertaken in Canto one and unfolds as a hymn to natural fertility and ritual sex. Canto XL opens with Adam Smith on trade as a conspiracy against the general public, followed by another periplus, a condensed version of Hanno the Navigator's account of his voyage along the west coast of Africa. The book closes with an account of Benito Mussolini as a man of action and another lament on the waste of war. Circe, a painting by Edward Burne-Jones. ... Adam Smith, FRSE, (baptised June 5, 1723 – July 17, 1790) was a Scottish political economist and moral philosopher. ... Hanno the Navigator was a Carthaginian explorer, sent out with a fleet and many thousands of colonists, who founded or repopulated seven Carthaginian cities on the Atlantic shore of Morocco and explored the Atlantic coast of Africa, apparently deep into the Gulf of Guinea. ... Africa is the worlds second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia. ... Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini (July 29, 1883 – April 28, 1945) led Italy from 1922 to 1943. ...

XLII – LI (Fifth Decad, called also Leopoldine Cantos)

Grand Duke Pietro Leopoldo, who, sought to end state debt and protected agricultural implements from sequestration for personal debt. (Portrait by Stefano Gaetano Neri)

Published as The Fifth Decad of the Cantos XLII-LI. London: Faber & Faber, 1937.

Cantos XLII, XLIII and XLIV move to the Sienese bank the Monte dei Paschi and to the 18th-century reforms of Pietro Leopoldo, Habsburg Arch Duke of Tuscany. Founded in 1624, the Monte dei Paschi was a low-interest, not-for-profit credit institution whose funds were based on local productivity as represented by the natural increase generated by the grazing of sheep on community land (the "BANK of the grassland" of Canto XLIII). As such, it represents a Poundian non-capitalist ideal. This image has been released into the public domain by the copyright holder, its copyright has expired, or it is ineligible for copyright. ... This image has been released into the public domain by the copyright holder, its copyright has expired, or it is ineligible for copyright. ... Siena is a city in Tuscany, Italy. ...

Canto XLV is a litany against Usura or usury, which Pound later defined as a charge on credit regardless of potential or actual production and the creation of wealth ex nihilo by a bank to the benefit of its shareholders. The canto declares this practice as both contrary to the laws of nature and inimical to the production of good art and culture. Pound later came to see this canto as a key central point in the poem. A litany, in Christian worship, is a form of prayer used in church services and processions, and consisting of a number of petitions. ... Usury (pronounced //, from the Latin usuria, demanding in return for a loan a greater amount than was borrowed) was defined originally as charging a fee for the use of money. ...

Canto XLVI contrasts what has gone before with the practices of institutions such as the Bank of England that are designed to exploit the issuing of credit to make profits, thereby, in Pound's view, contributing to poverty, social deprivation, crime and the production of "bad" art as exemplified by the baroque. The Bank of England is the central bank of the United Kingdom, sometimes known as The Old Lady of Threadneedle Street or The Old Lady. The nearest London Underground station is Bank station. ... Adoration, by Peter Paul Rubens. ...

The poem returns to the island of Circe and Odysseus about to "sail after knowledge" in Canto XLVII. There follows a long lyrical passage in which a ritual of floating votive candles on the bay at Rapallo near Pound's home every July merges with the cognate myths of Tammuz and Adonis, agricultural activity set in a calendar based on natural cycles, and fertility rituals. An icon of Aghia Paraskevi with votive offerings hung beside it. ... This is about a Ligurian commune, see Rapallo for a resort on the Adriatic coast. ... Tammuz or Tamuz Arabic تمّوز Tammūz; Hebrew תַּמּוּז, Standard Hebrew Tammuz, Tiberian Hebrew Tammûz; Akkadian Duʾzu, Dūzu; Sumerian Dumuzi was the name of a Babylonian deity. ... A 19th-century reproduction of a Greek bronze of Adonis found at Pompeii. ...

Canto XLVIII presents more instances of what Pound considers to be usury, some of which display signs of his anti-Semitic position. The canto then moves via Montsegur to the village of St-Bertrand-de-Comminges, which stands on the site of the ancient city of Lugdunum Convenarum. The destruction of this city represents, for the poet, the treatment of civilisation by those he considers barbarous.

Canto XLIX is a poem of tranquil nature derived from a Chinese picture book that Pound's parents brought with them when they retired to Rapallo. Canto L, which again contains anti-Semitic statements, moves from John Adams to the failure of the Medici bank and more general images of European decay since the time of Napoleon. The final canto in this sequence returns to the usura litany of Canto XLV, followed by detailed instructions on making flies for fishing (man in harmony with nature) and ends with a reference to the anti-Venetian League of Cambrai and the first Chinese written characters to appear in the poem, representing the Rectification of Names from the Analects of Confucius (the ideogram representing honesty at the end of Canto XLI was added when The Cantos was published as a single volume). For other uses, see Napoleon (disambiguation). ... Engraving of Confucius. ...

LII – LXI (The China Cantos)

Confucius cut 3000 odes to 300

First published in Cantos LII-LXXI. Norfolk Conn.: New Directions, 1940.

These eleven cantos are based on the first eleven volumes of the twelve-volume Histoire generale de la Chine by Joseph-Anna-Marie de Moyriac de Mailla (volume 12 being an index). De Mailla was a French Jesuit who spent 37 years in Peking and wrote his history there. The work was completed in 1730 but not published until 1777-1783. De Mailla was very much an Enlightenment figure and his view of Chinese history reflects this. He found Confucian political philosophy, with its emphasis on rational order, very much to his liking. He also disliked what he saw as the superstitious pseudo-mysticism promulgated by both Buddhists and Taoists, to the detriment of rational politics. Pound, in turn, fitted de Mailla's take on China into his own views on Christianity, the need for strong leadership to address 20th century fiscal and cultural problems and his support of Mussolini. In an introductory note to the section, Pound is at pains to point out that the ideograms and other fragments of foreign-language text incorporated in The Cantos should not put the reader off as they serve to underline things that are in the English text. Engraving of Confucius This image is in the public domain because its copyright has expired in the United States and those countries with a copyright term of life of the author plus 100 years. ... Engraving of Confucius This image is in the public domain because its copyright has expired in the United States and those countries with a copyright term of life of the author plus 100 years. ... The Society of Jesus (Societas Iesu (S.I. or S.J.) in Latin) is a Christian religious order of the Roman Catholic Church in direct service to the Pope. ... Beijing (Chinese: 北京; pinyin: Běijīng; Wade-Giles: Pei-ching; Postal System Pinyin: Peking), is the capital city of the Peoples Republic of China. ... The Age of Enlightenment refers to the 18th century in European philosophy, and is often thought of as part of a period which includes the Age of Reason. ... China is the worlds oldest continuous major civilization, with written records dating back about 3,500 years and with 5,000 years being commonly used by Chinese as the age of their civilization. ... A replica of an ancient statue found among the ruins of a temple at Sarnath Buddhism is a philosophy based on the teachings of the Buddha, Siddhārtha Gautama, a prince of the Shakyas, whose lifetime is traditionally given as 566 to 486 BCE. It had subsequently been accepted by... For other uses of the words tao and dao, see Dao (disambiguation). ...

Canto LII opens with references to Duke Leopoldo, John Adams and Gertrude Bell, before sliding into a particularly virulent anti-Semitic passage, directed mainly at the Rothschild family. The remainder of the canto is concerned with the classic Chinese text known as the Li Ki or Classic of Rites, especially those parts that deal with agriculture and natural increase. The diction is the same as that used in earlier cantos on similar subjects. Gertrude Margaret Lowthian Bell (July 14, 1868–July 12, 1926) was a British woman who had a major hand in creating the modern state of Iraq. ... Rothschild (variant: Rothchild) is a German surname. ... Classic of Rites The Classic of Rites (禮記 Lǐ Jì, or Liki) was one of the Five Classics of Confucianism; it described social forms, ancient rites, and court ceremonies. ...

Canto LIII covers the period from the founding of the Hai dynasty to the life of Confucius and up to circa 225 BCE. Special mention is made of emperors that Confucius approved of and the sage's interest in cultural matters is stressed. For example, we are told that he edited the Book of Odes, cutting it from 3000 to 300 poems. The canto also ascribes the Poundian motto (and title of a 1934 collection of essays) Make it New to the emperor Tching Tang. Canto LIV moves the story on to around 805 CE. The line "Some cook, some do not cook,/some things can not be changed" refers to Pound's domestic situation and recurs, in part, in Canto LXXXI. This article is about the extremely ancient Chinese dynasty whose existence has yet to be thoroughly confirmed by archaeology. ... Shī Jīng (詩經), translated variously as the Classic of Poetry, the Book of Songs or the Book of Odes, is the first major collection of Chinese poems. ... Tang (湯)was the first rule of the Shang dynasty in Chinese history. ...

Canto LV is mainly concerned with the rise of the Tartars and the Tartar Wars, ending about 1200. There is a lot on money policy in this canto and Pound quotes approvingly the Tartar ruler Oulo who noted that the people "cannot eat jewels". This is echoed in Canto LVI when KinKwa remarks that both gold and jade are inedible. This canto is mainly concerned with Ghengis and Kublai Khan and the rise of their Yeun dynasty. The canto closes with the overthrow of the Yeun and the establishment of the Ming dynasty, bringing us up to 1400, approximately. Tartar refers to: the Tatars, an ethnic group in present-day Russia (this term formerly extended to nearly all Central Asian and Mongolian ethnic groups) Mongolian tribe Tartars in 12th century hardened dental plaque (see calculus (dental)). You may also be looking for: tartar sauce, salts of tartaric acid: cream... Genghis Khan (Mongolian: Чингис Хаан, Jenghis Khan, Jinghis Khan, Chinghiz Khan, Jinghiz Khan, Chinggis Khan, Changaiz Khan, original name Temüjin, Temuchin, Mongolian: Тэмүүжин) (c. ... The Yuan Dynasty (Chinese: 元朝; pinyin: Yuáncháo; Mongolian: Dai Ön Yeke Mongghul Ulus) lasting officially from 1271 to 1368, occasionally known as the Mongol Dynasty. ... The Míng Dynasty (Chinese: 明朝; Pinyin: Míng Cháo) was the ruling dynasty of China from 1368 to 1644. ...

Canto LVII opens with the story of the flight of the emperor Kien Ouen Ti in 1402 or 1403 and continues with the history of the Ming up to the middle of the 16th century. Canto LVIII opens with a condensed history of Japan from the legendary first emperor, Emperor Jimmu, who supposedly ruled in the 7th century BC, to the late 16th century Toyotomi Hideyoshi (anglicised by Pound as Messier Undertree), who issued edicts against Christianity and raided Korea, thus putting pressure on China's eastern borders. The canto then goes on to outline the concurrent pressure placed on the western borders by activities associated with the great Tartar horse fairs, leading to the rise of the Manchu dynasty. The Jianwen Emperor (December 5, 1377–July 13, 1402), with the personal name Zhu Yunwen, reigned as the second Emperor of the Ming dynasty. ... Meiji era print of Emperor Jimmu The legendary tomb of Emperor Jimmu, Nara Emperor Jimmu (神武天皇 Jinmu Tennō; given name: Kamuyamato Iwarebiko, born according to legend on January 1, 711 BCE, and died, again according to legend, on March 11, 585 BCE), was the mythical founder of Japan and is the... Hideyoshi in old age. ... Korea (Korean: (ì¡°ì„  or 한국, see below) is a civilization and geographical area situated on the Korean Peninsula in East Asia, bordering China to the northwest and Russia to the northeast, with Japan situated to the southeast across the Korea Strait. ... The Qing Dynasty (Chinese: 清朝; Pinyin: ; Wade-Giles: Ching chao; Manchu: daicing gurun), sometimes known as the Manchu Dynasty, was a dynasty founded by the Manchu clan Aisin Gioro, in what is today northeast China, expanded into China and the surrounding territories, establishing the Empire of the Great Qing...

The translation of the Confucian classics into Manchu opens the following canto, Canto LIX. The canto is then concerned with the increasing European interest in China, as evidenced by a Sino-Russian border treaty and the founding of the Jesuit mission in 1685 under Jean-François Gerbillon. Canto LX deals with the activities of the Jesuits, who, we are told, introduced astronomy, western music, physics and the use of quinine. The canto ends with limitations being placed on Christians, who had come to be seen as enemies of the state. Jean-François Gerbillon (4 June 1654, Verdun – 27 March 1707, Peking, China) was a french missionary, who worked in China. ... Radio telescopes are among many different tools used by astronomers Astronomy (Greek: αστρονομία = άστρον + νόμος, astronomia = astron + nomos, literally, law of the stars) is the science of celestial objects and phenomena that originate outside the Earths atmosphere, such as stars, planets, comets, auroras, galaxies, and the cosmic background radiation. ... Music is a form of expression in the medium of time using the structures of tones and silence. ... Physics (from the Greek, φυσικός (physikos), natural, and φύσις (physis), nature) is the science of the natural world, which deals with the fundamental constituents of the universe, the forces they exert on one another, and the results of these forces. ... Quinine, is a natural white crystalline alkaloid having antipyretic, anti-malarial with analgesic and anti-inflammatory properties and a bitter taste. ...

The final canto in the sequence, Canto LXI, covers the reigns of Yong Tching and Kien Long, bringing the story up to the end of de Mailla's account. Yong Tching is shown banning Christianity as "immoral" and "seeking to uproot Kung's laws". He also established just prices for foodstuffs, bringing us back to the ideas of Social Credit. There are also references to the Italian Risorgimento, John Adams, and Dom Metello de Souza, who gained some measure of relief for the Jesuit mission. The Yongzheng Emperor (born Yinzhen 胤禛) (December 13, 1678 - October 8, 1735) was the fourth emperor of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, and the third Qing emperor to rule over China, from 1722 to 1735. ... The Qianlong Emperor (born Hongli, September 25, 1711 – February 7, 1799) was the fifth emperor of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, and the fourth Qing emperor to rule over China. ... Italian unification, also known as Risorgimento (resurrection), was a historical process by which the Kingdom of Sardinia (ruled by the Savoy dynasty with Turin as its capital) gradually conquered the Italian peninsula, including the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, the Duchy of Modena, the Grand Duchy of Tuscany, the Duchy...

LXII – LXXI (The Adams Cantos)

John Adams: "the man who at certain points/made us/at certain points/saved us" Canto LXII

First published in Cantos LII-LXXI. Norfolk Conn.: New Directions, 1940.

This section of the cantos is, for the most part, made up of fragmentary citations from the writings of John Adams. Pound's intentions appear to be to show Adams as an example of the rational Enlightenment leader, thereby continuing the primary theme of the preceding China Cantos sequence which these cantos also follow from chronologically. Adams is depicted as a rounded figure; he is a strong leader with interests in political, legal and cultural matters in much the same way that Malatesta and Mussolini are portrayed elsewhere in the poem. The English jurist Sir Edward Coke, who is an important figure in some later cantos, first appears in this section of the poem. Given the fragmentary nature of the citations used, these cantos can be quite difficult to follow for the reader with no knowledge of the history of the United States in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Image File history File links John Adams presidential portrait. ... Image File history File links John Adams presidential portrait. ... John Adams (October 30, 1735 – July 4, 1826) was the first (1789–1797) Vice President of the United States, and the second President of the United States, whose term lasted from 1797 to 1801. ... A jurist is a professional who studies, develops, applies or otherwise deals with the law. ... Sir Edward Coke Sir Edward Coke (pronounced cook) (1 February 1552–3 September 1634), educated at Norwich School, was an early English colonial entrepreneur and jurist whose writings on the English common law were the definitive legal texts for some 300 years. ...

Canto LXII opens with a brief history of the Adams family in America from 1628. The rest of the canto is concerned with events leading up to the revolution, Adams' time in France, and the formation of Washington's administration. Alexander Hamilton reappears, again cast as the villain of the piece. The appearance of the single Greek word "THUMON", meaning heart, returns us to the world of Homer's Odyssey and Pound's use of Odysseus as a model for all his heroes, including Adams. The word is used of Odysseus in the fourth line of the Odyssey; "he suffered woes in his heart on the seas". This article is the current U.S. Collaboration of the Week. ...

The next canto, Canto LXIII, is concerned with Adams' career as a lawyer and especially his reports of the legal arguments presented by James Otis in the Writs of Assistance case and their importance in the build-up to the revolution. The Latin phrase Eripuit caelo fulmen ("He snatched the thunderbolt from heaven") is taken from an inscription on a bust of Benjamin Franklin. Cavalcanti's canzone, Pound's touchstone text of clear intellection and precision of language, reappears with the insertion of the lines In quella parte/dove sta memoria into the text. James Otis (February 5, 1725 – May 23, 1783) was a lawyer in colonial Massachusetts who was an early advocate of the political views that led to the American Revolution. ... A Writ of Assistance is a legal writ that serves as a general search warrant. ... Benjamin Franklin by Jean-Baptiste Greuze 1777 Benjamin Franklin (January 17 [O.S. January 6] 1706 – April 17, 1790) was one of the most prominent of the Founders and early political figures and statesmen of the United States. ...

Canto LXIV covers the Stamp Act and other resistance to British taxation of the American colonies. It also shows Adams defending the accused in the Boston Massacre and engaging in agricultural experiments to ascertain the suitability of Old-World crops for American conditions. The phrases Cumis ego oculis meis, tu theleis, respondebat illa and apothanein are from the passage (taken from Petronius' Satyricon) that T.S. Eliot used as epigraph to The Waste Land at Pound's suggestion. The passage translates as "For with my own eyes I saw the Sibyl hanging in a jar at Cumae, and when the boys said to her, 'Sibyl, what do you want?' she replied, 'I want to die.'" A Stamp Act is a law enacted by a government that requires tax to be paid on the transfer of certain documents such as property deeds. ... Engraving by Paul Revere This chromolithograph by John Bufford prominently features a black man believed to be Crispus Attucks. ... Petronius (c. ... Satyricon, or the Petronii Arbitri Saturicon, is a book of randy and satirical Neroic tales by Petronius Arbiter, of whom little is known. ...

The nomination of Washington as president dominates the opening pages of Canto LXV. The canto shows Adams concerned with the practicalities of waging war, particularly of establishing a navy. Following a passage on the drafting of the Declaration of Independence, the canto returns to Adams' mission to France, focusing on his dealings with the American legation in that country, consisting of Franklin, Silas Deane and Edward Bancroft and with the French foreign minister, the Comte de Vergennes. Intertwined with this is the fight to save the rights of Americans to fish the Atlantic coastline. A passage on Adams' opposition to American involvement in European wars, echoing Pound's position on his own times, is highlighted. In Canto LXVI, we see Adams in London serving as minister to the Court of St. James's. The body of the canto consists of quotations from Adams' writings on the legal basis for the Revolution, including citations from Magna Carta and Coke and on the importance of trial by jury (per pares et legem terrae). The multinational Combined Task Force One Five Zero (CTF-150) The British Grand Fleet, the supreme naval force of WW1 A rare occurrence of a 5-country multinational fleet, during Operation Enduring Freedom in the Oman Sea. ... A declaration of independence is a proclamation of the independence of an aspiring state or states. ... Silas Deane (December 24, 1737 - September 23, 1789), was a delegate to the American Continental Congress and later a diplomat. ... Edward Bancroft (January 9, 1744 – September 8, 1820) was an American physician and double agent in the American Revolution. ... Charles Gravier, Comte de Vergennes, French statesman and diplomat Charles Gravier, Comte de Vergennes (20 December 1717 – 13 February 1787) was a French statesman and diplomat. ... The Court of St Jamess is the popular name of the royal court of the United Kingdom. ... Magna Carta Magna Carta (Latin for Great Charter, literally Great Paper), also called Magna Carta Libertatum, was an English charter originally issued in 1215. ... Trial by Jury is a comic Gilbert and Sullivan operetta in one act (the only single-act Savoy Opera). ...

Canto LXVII opens with a passage on the limits on the powers of the British monarch drawn from Adams' writings under the pseudonym Novanglus. The rest of the canto is concerned with the study of government and with the requirements of the franchise. The following canto, LXVIII, begins with a meditation on the tripartite division of society into the one, the few and the many. A parallel is drawn between Adams and Lycurgus, the just king of Sparta. Then the canto returns to Adams' notes on the practicalities of funding the war and the negotiation of a loan from the Dutch. In Ancient Greece and/or Greek mythology, the name Lycurgus/Lykurgus can refer to: An alternate name for Lycomedes. ... Sparta (Doric: Σπάρτα, Attic (and Koine): Σπάρτη) was a state in ancient Greece, whose territory included, in Classical times, all Laconia and Messenia, and which was the most powerful state of the Peloponnesus. ...

Canto LXIX continues the subject of the Dutch loan and then turns to Adams' fear of the emergence of a native aristocracy in America, as noted in his remark that Jefferson feared rule by "the one" (monarch or dictator), while he, Adams, feared "the few". The remainder of the canto is concerned with Hamilton, James Madison and the affair of the assumption of debt certificates by Congress which resulted in a significant shift of economic power to the federal government from the individual states. James Madison (March 16, 1751 – June 28, 1836) was the fourth (1809–1817) President of the United States. ...

Canto LXX deals mainly with Adams' time as vice-president and president, focusing on his statement "I am for balance", highlighted in the text by the addition of the ideogram for balance. The section ends with Canto LXXI, which summarises many of the themes of the foregoing cantos and adds material on Adams' relationship with Native Americans and their treatment by the British during the Indian Wars. The canto closes with the opening lines of Epictetus' Hymn of Cleanthus, which Pound tells us formed part of Adams' paideuma. These lines invoke Zeus as one "who rules by law", a clear parallel to the Adams presented by Pound. An Atsina named Assiniboin Boy Photo by Edward S. Curtis. ... Indian Wars is the name used by historians in the United States to describe a series of conflicts between the United States and Native American peoples (Indians) of North America. ... Epictetus (c. ... Statue of Zeus Phidias created the 12-m (40-ft) tall statue of Zeus at Olympia about 435 BC. The statue was perhaps the most famous sculpture in ancient Greece, imagined here in a 16th-century engraving. ...

LXXII – LXXIII

Written between 1940 and 1944.

These two cantos, written in Italian, were not published until their posthumous inclusion in the 1987 revision of the complete text of the poem. They cover much familiar ground; Sigismondo, Dante and Cavalcanti appear, as does Pound's linking of usury and Jews in another anti-Semitic rant aimed at Franklin D. Roosevelt, Winston Churchill and Anthony Eden. In contrast with some of his earlier critical writings, Pound praises the Futurist writer Filippo Tommaso Marinetti. Franklin Delano Roosevelt (January 30, 1882–April 12, 1945), 32nd President of the United States, the longest-serving holder of the office and the only man to be elected President more than twice, was one of the central figures of 20th century history. ... Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill, KG, OM, CH, TD, FRS, PC (30 November 1874 – 24 January 1965) was a British politician and author, best known as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom during the Second World War. ... The Right Honourable Robert Anthony Eden, 1st Earl of Avon, KG, MC, PC (June 12, 1897– January 14, 1977), British politician, was Foreign Secretary during World War II and Prime Minister of the United Kingdom during the 1950s. ... This article is about the art movement, futurism. ... The Futurists in Paris, February 1912. ...

LXXIV – LXXXIV (The Pisan Cantos)

Aubrey Beardsley: "Beauty is difficult, Yeats' said Aubrey Beardsley/when Yeats asked why he drew horrors/or at least not Burne-Jones/and Beardsley knew he was dying and had to/make his hit quickly .../So very difficult, Yeats, beauty so difficult". (Canto LXXX)

First published as The Pisan Cantos. New York: New Directions, 1948.

With the outbreak of war in 1939, Pound was in Italy, where he remained, despite a request for repatriation he made after Pearl Harbor. During this period, his main source of income was a series of radio broadcasts he made on Rome Radio. He used these broadcasts to express his full range of opinions on culture, politics and economics, including his opposition to American involvement in a European war and his anti-Semitism. In 1943, he was indicted for treason in his absence, and wrote a letter to the indicting judge in which he claimed the right to freedom of speech in his defence. Image File history File links This image was copied from the nl Wikipedia. ... Image File history File links This image was copied from the nl Wikipedia. ... Aubrey Beardsley Aubrey Vincent Beardsley (August 21, 1872 – March 16, 1898) was an influential English artist, illustrator, and author. ... Satellite image of Pearl Harbor. ... A public demonstration Freedom of speech is the concept of being able to speak freely without censorship. ...

Pound was arrested by Italian partisans in April 1945 and was eventually transferred to the American Disciplinary Training Center (DTC) on May 22. Here he was held in a specially reinforced cage, initially sleeping on the ground in the open air. After three weeks, he had a breakdown that resulted in his being given a cot and pup tent in the medical compound. Here, he gained access to a typewriter. For reading matter, he had a regulation-issue Bible along with three books he was allowed to bring in as his own "religious" texts: a Chinese text of Confucius, James Legge's translation of the same, and a Chinese dictionary. He later found a copy of the Pocket Book of Verse, edited by Morris Edmund Speare, in the latrine. The only other thing he brought with him was a eucalyptus pip. Throughout the Pisan sequence, Pound repeatedly likens the camp to Francesco del Cossa's March fresco depicting men working at a grape arbour. May 22 is the 142nd day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (143rd in leap years). ... The Gutenberg Bible owned by the United States Library of Congress The Bible (Hebrew: תנ״ך tanakh, Greek: η Βίβλος hē biblos) (sometimes The Holy Bible, The Book, Work of God, The Word, The Good Book or Scripture), from Greek (τα) βίβλια, (ta) biblia, (the) books, is the name used by Jews and Christians for their... Ezra Pounds annotations on his copy of James Legges translation of the Book of Poetry (Shih Ching), in the Sacred Books of the East. ... Species About 700; see the List of Eucalyptus species Wikispecies has information related to: Eucalyptus Eucalyptus is a diverse genus of trees (rarely shrubs), the members of which dominate the tree flora of Australia. ... Triumph of Venus (detail), 1469-1470. ... Fresco by Dionisius representing Saint Nicholas. ...

With his political certainties collapsing around him and his library inaccessible, Pound turned inward for his materials and much of the Pisan sequence is concerned with memory, especially of his years in London and Paris and of the writers and artists he knew in those cities. There is also a deepening of the ecological concerns of the poem. As already mentioned, the awarding of the Bollingen Prize to the book caused considerable controversy, with many people objecting to the honouring of someone they saw as a madman and/or traitor. However, the Pisan Cantos is generally the most admired and read section of the work. It is also among the most influential, having impacted on poets as different as H.D. and Gary Snyder. H.D. in the mid 1910s Hilda Doolittle (September 10, 1886, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania – September 27, 1961, Zürich), prominently known only by her initials H.D., was an American poet, novelist and memoirist. ... Young Gary Snyder, on one of his early book covers Gary Snyder (born May 8, 1930) is an American poet, essayist, lecturer, and environmental activist. ...

Canto LXXIV immediately introduces the reader to the method used in the Pisan Cantos, which is one of interweaving themes somewhat in the manner of a fugue. These themes pick up on many of the concerns of the earlier cantos and frequently run across sections of the Pisan sequence. This canto begins with Pound looking out of the DTC at peasants working in the fields nearby and reflecting on the news of the death of Mussolini, "hung by the heels". In music, a fugue is a type of piece written for counterpoint for several independent musical voices. ...

In the first thread, the figure of Pound/Odysseus reappears in the guise of "OY TIS", or no man, the name the hero uses in the Cyclops episode of the Odyssey. This figure blends into the Australia rain god Wanjina, who had his mouth closed up by his father (was deprived of freedom of speech) because he 'created too many things'. He, in turn, becomes the Chinese Ouan Jin, or man with an education. This theme recurs in the line "a man on whom the sun has gone down", a reference to the "Nekuia" from Canto I, which is then explicitly referred to. This recalls The Seafarer, and Pound quotes a line from his translation, "Lordly men are to earth o'ergiven", lamenting the loss of the exiled poet's companions. This is then applied to a number of Pound's dead friends from the London/Paris years, including W.B. Yeats, James Joyce, Ford Madox Ford, Victor Plarr and Henry James. Finally, Pound/Odysseus is seen "on a raft blown by the wind". Polyphemus the Cyclops. ... A 1907 engraving of Yeats. ... James Augustine Aloysius Joyce (Irish name Séamas Seoighe; 2 February 1882 – 13 January 1941) was an expatriate Irish writer and poet, widely considered to be one of the most influential writers of the 20th century. ... Ford Madox Ford (December 17, 1873 - June 26, 1939) was an English novelist and publisher. ... Victor Gustave Plarr (1863 – 1929) was an English poet; he is probably best known for the single poem Epitaphium Citharistriae. ... For other uses of this name, see Henry James (disambiguation). ...

Another major theme running through this canto is that of the vision of a goddess in the poet's tent. This starts from the identification of a nearby mountain with the Chinese holy mountain Taishan and the naming of the moon as sorella la luna (sister moon). This thread then runs through the appearance of Kuanon, the Buddhist goddess of mercy, the moon spirit from Hagaromo (a Noh play translated by Pound some 40 years earlier), Sigismondo's lover Ixotta (linked in the text with Aphrodite via a reference to the goddess' birthplace Cythera), a girl painted by Manet and finally Aphrodite herself, rising from the sea on her shell and rescuing Pound/Odysseus from his raft. The two threads are further linked by the placement of the Greek word brododactylos (rose-fingered) applied by Homer to the dawn but given here in the dialect of Sappho and used by her in a poem of unrequited love. These images are often intimately associated with the poet's close observation of the natural world as it imposes itself on the camp; birds, a lizard, clouds, the weather and other images of nature run through the canto. Taishan (台山 pinyin: Táishān; Cantonese: Toisan; local: Hoisan ) is a coastal county-level city in Guangdong Province, China. ... Kuan Yin (觀音; Pinyin: Guān YÄ«n) is the bodhisattva of compassion as venerated by East Asian Buddhists, usually as a female. ... Noh performance at Itsukushima Shrine, Miyajima, Hiroshima Noh or Nō (Japanese: 能) is a major form of classical Japanese musical drama that has been performed since the 14th century. ... Birth of Venus (a. ... Kythira, also seen as Kythera, Cythera or Tsirigo, is an island, one of the Ionian Islands. ... Édouard Manet - 19th century French painter Mobile_ad-hoc_network - A self configuring wireless network This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ...

Images of light and brightness associated with these goddesses come to focus in the phrase "all things that are, are lights" quoted from John Scotus Eriugena. He, in turn, brings us back to the Albigensian Crusade and the troubadour world of Bernard de Ventadorn. Another theme sees Ecbatana, the seven-walled "city of Dioce", blend with the city of Wagadu, from the tale of Gassire's Lute that Pound learned from Frobenius. This city, four times rebuilt, with its four walls, four gates and four towers at the corners is a symbol for spiritual endurance. It, in turn, blends with the DTC in which the poet is imprisoned. Ecbatana (Hañgmatana in Old Persian, Agbatana in Aeschylus, written Agamtanu by Nabonidos, and Agamatanu at Behistun) was the capital of Astyages (Istuvegü), which was taken by the Persian emperor Cyrus the Great in the sixth year of Nabonidos (549 BC). ... Ouagadougou (WAH-GAH-doo-goo) is the capital of Burkina Faso. ...

The question of banking and money also recurs, with an anti-Semitic passage aimed at the banker Meyer Anselm. Pound brings in biblical injunctions on usury and a reference to the issuing of a stamp script currency in the Austrian town of Wörgl. The canto then moves on to a longish passage of memories of the moribund literary scene Pound encountered in London when he first arrived, with the phrase "beauty is difficult", quoted from Aubrey Beardsley acting as a refrain. After more memories of America and Venice, the canto ends in a passage that brings together Dante's celestial rose, the rose formed by the effect of a magnet on iron filings, an image from Paul Verlaine of the human soul as a fountain and a reference to a poem by Ben Jonson in a composite image of hope for "those who have passed over Lethe". Aubrey Beardsley Aubrey Vincent Beardsley (August 21, 1872 – March 16, 1898) was an influential English artist, illustrator, and author. ... Paul Verlaine illustrated in the frontispiece of , 1902 Paul Marie Verlaine (March 30, 1844 – January 8, 1896) is considered one of the greatest and most popular of French poets. ... Benjamin Jonson (circa June 11, 1572 – August 6, 1637) was an English Renaissance dramatist, poet and actor. ... In Classical Greek, Lethe literally means forgetfulness or concealment. The Greek word for truth is a-lethe-ia, meaning un-forgetfulness or un-concealment. In Greek mythology, Lethe is one of the several rivers of Hades. ...

Canto LXXV is mainly a facsimile of the German pianist Gerhart Münch's violin setting of the 16th-century Italian Francesco Da Milano's transcription for lute of French composer Clement Janequin's choral work Le Chant des oiseaux, an ancient song recalled to Pound's mind by the singing of birds on the fence of the DTC, and a symbol for him of an indestructible form preserved and transmitted through many versions, times, nations and artists. (Compare the Nekuia of canto I.) Münch was a friend and collaborator of Pound in Rapallo, and the short prose section at the beginning of the canto celebrates his work on other early music figures. A composer is a person who writes music. ... Clément Janequin (c. ...

Canto LXXVI opens with a vision of a group of goddesses in Pound's room on the Rapallo hillside and then moves, via Mont Segur, to memories of Paris and Jean Cocteau. There follows a passage in which the poet recognises the Jewish authorship of the prohibition on usury found in Leviticus. Conversations in the camp are then cross-cut into memories of Provence and Venice, details of the American Revolution and further visions. These memories lead to a consideration of what has or may have been destroyed in the war. Pound remembers the moment in Venice when he decided not to destroy his first book of verse, A Lume Spento, an affirmation of his decision to become a poet and a decision that ultimately led to his incarceration in the DTC. The canto ends with the goddess, in the form of a butterfly, leaving the poet's tent amid further references to Sappho and Homer. Jean Cocteau Jean Maurice Eugène Clément Cocteau (July 5, 1889 – October 11, 1963) was a French poet, novelist, dramatist, designer, boxing manager and filmmaker. ... Leviticus is the third book of the Hebrew Bible, also the third book in the Torah (five books of Moses). ...

The main focus of Canto LXXVII is accurate use of language, and at its centre is the moment when Pound hears that the war is over. Pound draws on examples of language use from Confucius, the Japanese dancer Michio Itô, who worked with Pound and Yeats in London, a Dublin cab driver, Aristotle, Basil Bunting, Yeats, Joyce and the vocabulary of the U.S. Army. The goddess in her various guises appears again, as does Awoi's hennia, the spirit of jealousy from "AOI NO UE", a Noh play translated by Pound. The canto closes with an invocation of Dionysus (Zagreus). Dionysus with a panther and satyr, in the Palazzo Altemps (Rome, Italy) Dionysus or Dionysos (Ancient Greek: Διώνυσος or Διόνυσος; also known as Bacchus in both Greek and Roman mythology and associated with the Italic Liber), the Thracian god of wine, represents not only the intoxicating power of wine, but also its...

After opening with a glimpse of Mount Ida, an important locus for the history of the Trojan war, Canto LXXVIII moves through much that is familiar from the earlier cantos in the sequence: del Cossa, the economic basis of war, Pound's writer and artist friends in London, "virtuous" rulers (Lorenzo de Medici, the emperors Justinian, Titus and Antoninus, Mussolini), usury and stamp scripts culminating in the Nausicaa episode from the Odyssey and a reference to the Confucian classic Annals of Spring and Autumn in which "there are no righteous wars". Two sacred mountains are called Mount Ida in Greek mythology, equally named Mount of the Goddess. ... The exact same full name was also carried by his grandson Lorenzo (1492 - 1519), Duke of Urbino, with whom he is sometimes confused. ... Justinian I depicted on one of the famous mosaics of the Basilica of San Vitale. ... Titus Flavius Vespasianus (December 30, 39–September 13, 81) ruled the Roman Empire from 79 to 81. ... Marcus Aurelius Imperator Caesar Marcus Aurelius Antoninus Augustus (April 26, 121 – March 17, 180) was Roman Emperor from 161 to his death in 180. ... Odysseus and Nausicaä - by Charles Gleyre In ancient Greek literature, Nausicaa (often rendered Nausicaä; Greek: Ναυσικάα), a daughter of King Alcinous (Alkínoös) of the Phaeacians and Queen Arete, appears in Homers Odyssey (odysseía). ... The Annals of Spring and Autumn (春秋 Chūn Qiū, also known as 麟經 Lín Jīng) was the chronicle of the state of Lu during the Spring and Autumn Period, from 722 BC to 481 BC. Traditionally attributed to Confucius as writer or at least editor, it covers not only annual...

The moon and clouds appear at the opening of Canto LXXIX, which then moves on through a passage in which birds on the wire fence recall musical notation and the sounds of the camp and thoughts of Mozart, del Cossa and Marshal Pétain meld to form musical counterpoint. After references to politics, economics, and the nobility of the world of the Noh and the ritual dance of the moon-nymph in Hagaromo that dispels mortal doubt, the canto closes with an extended fertility hymn to Dionysus in the guise of his sacred lynx. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (January 27, 1756 – December 5, 1791) was one of the most significant and influential of all composers of Western classical music. ... Philippe Pétain Marshal Henri Philippe Benoni Omer Joseph Pétain (24 April 1856 – 23 July 1951), generally known as Philippe Pétain or Marshal Pétain, was a French soldier and Head of State of Vichy France, from 1940 to 1944. ... The range of the lynx. ...

Canto LXXX opens in the camp in the shadow of death and soon turns to memories of London, Paris and Spain, including a recollection of Walter Rummel, who worked with Pound on troubadour music before World War I and of Eliot, Wyndham Lewis, Laurence Binyon and others. The canto is concerned with the aftermath of war, drawing on Yeats' experiences after the Irish Civil War as well as the contemporary situation. Hagoromo appears again before the poem returns to Beardsley, also in the shadow of death, declaring the difficulty of beauty with a phrase from Symons and Sappho/Homer's rosy-fingered dawn woven through the passage. Wyndam Lewis in 1916 Percy Wyndham Lewis (November 18, 1882 – March 7, 1957) was a Canadian born British painter and author. ... Robert Laurence Binyon (August 10, 1869 at Lancaster, England – March 10, 1943 at Reading, Berkshire) was a British poet, dramatist and art scholar. ... Combatants Irish Republican Army (1922-1969) Irish Army of the Irish Free State Commanders Liam Lynch Michael Collins Richard Mulcahy Strength c. ...

Pound writes of the decline of the sense of the spirit in painting from a high-point in Sandro Botticelli to the fleshiness of Rubens and its recovery in the 20th century as evidenced in the works of Marie Laurencin and others. This is set between two further references to Mont Segur. Pound/Odysseus is then saved from his sinking raft by Walt Whitman and Richard Lovelace as discovered in the anthology of poetry found in the camp toilet and the other prisoners are compared with Odysseus' crew, "men of no fortune". The canto then closes with two passages, one a pastiche of Browning, the other of Edward Fitzgerald's Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, lamenting the lost London of Pound's youth and an image of nature as designer. Alessandro di Mariano Filipepi, better known as Sandro Botticelli (little barrel) (March 1, 1445 – May 17, 1510) was an Italian painter of the Florentine school during the Early Renaissance (Quattrocento). ... Pieter Pauwel (Peter Paul) Rubens (June 28, 1577 - May 30, 1640) was a Flemish baroque painter. ... Marie Laurencin photographed by Carl Van Vechten, 1949 Marie Laurencin (October 31, 1883 — June 8, 1956), Parisian painter and engraver. ... Walt Whitman Walt Whitman (born Walter Whitman) (May 31, 1819 – March 26, 1892) was an American poet, essayist, journalist, and humanist born in West Hills, Huntington on Long Island in New York. ... Richard Lovelace (1618 - 1657) was an English poet and nobleman, born in Woolwich, today part of south-east London. ... Edward Marlborough FitzGerald (March 31, 1809–June 14, 1883) was an English writer, best known as the poet of the English translation of Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám. ... Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam (Persian: رباعیات عمر خیام) The Rubáiyát (Arabic: رباعیات) is a collection of poems (of which there are about a thousand) attributed to the Persian mathematician and astronomer Omar Khayyám (1048-1123). ...

Canto LXXXI opens with a complex image that illustrates Pound's technical approach well. The opening line, "Zeus lies in Ceres bosom", merges the conception of Demeter, passages in previous cantos on ritual copulation as a means of ensuring fertility, and the direct experience of the sun (Zeus) still hidden at dawn by two hills resembing breast in the Pisan landscape. This is followed by an image of the other mountain that reminded the poet of Taishan surrounded by vapors and surmounted by the planet Venus ("Taishan is attended of loves/under Cythera, before sunrise"). Statue of Zeus Phidias created the 12-m (40-ft) tall statue of Zeus at Olympia about 435 BC. The statue was perhaps the most famous sculpture in ancient Greece, imagined here in a 16th-century engraving. ... In Roman mythology, Ceres was the goddess of growing plants (particularly cereals) and of motherly love. ... (*min temperature refers to cloud tops only) Atmospheric characteristics Atmospheric pressure 9. ...

The canto then moves through memories of Spain, a story told by Basil Bunting, and anecdotes of a number of familiar personages and of George Santayana. At the core of this passage is the line "(to break the pentameter, that was the first heave)", Pound's comment on the "revolution of the word" that led to the emergence of Modernist poetry in the early years of the century. George Santayana George Santayana (16 December 1863 in Madrid, Spain – 26 September 1952 in Rome, Italy), was a philosopher, essayist, poet, and novelist. ...

Then the goddess of love returns after a lyric passage situating Pound's work in the great tradition of English lyric, in the sense of words intended to be sung. This heralds perhaps the most widely quoted passages in The Cantos in which Pound expresses his realisation that "What thou lovest well remains,/the rest is dross" and an acceptance of the need for human humility in the face of the natural world that prefigures some of the ideas associated with the deep ecology movement. Deep ecology is a recent philosophy or ecosophy based on a shift away from the anthropocentric bias of established environmental and green movements. ...

The opening of Canto LXXXII marks a return to the camp and its inmates. This is followed by a passage that draws on Pound's London memories and his reading of the Pocket Book of Verse. Pound laments his failure to recognise the Greek qualities of Swinburne's work and celebrates Wilfred Scawen Blunt, Rudyard Kipling, Ford Madox Ford, Walt Whitman, Yeats and others. After an expanded clarification of the Annals of Spring and Autumn / "there are no righteous wars" passage from Canto LXXVIII, this canto culminates in images of the poet drowning in earth and a recurrence of the Greek word for weeping, ending with more bird-notes seen as a periplum. Swinburne may be A. C. Swinburne the poet Swinburne University of Technnology in Melbourne, Australia Swinburne, Free State in South Africa This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ... Wilfrid Scawen Blunt (1840–1922) was a British poet and writer. ... Rudyard Kipling Joseph Rudyard Kipling (December 30, 1865 – January 18, 1936) was a British author and poet, born in India. ... Ford Madox Ford (December 17, 1873 - June 26, 1939) was an English novelist and publisher. ... Walt Whitman Walt Whitman (born Walter Whitman) (May 31, 1819 – March 26, 1892) was an American poet, essayist, journalist, and humanist born in West Hills, Huntington on Long Island in New York. ...

After a number of cantos in which the elements of earth and air feature so strongly, Canto LXXXIII opens with images of water and light, drawn from Pindar, George Gemistos Plethon, John Scotus Eriugena, the mermaid carvings of Pietro Lombardo and Heraclitus' phrase panta rei ("everything flows"). A passage addressed to a Dryad speaks out against the death sentence and cages for wild animals and is followed by lines on equity in government and natural processes based on the writings of Mencius. The tone of placid acceptance is underscored by three Chinese characters that translate as "don't help to grow that which will grow of itself" followed by another appearance of the Greek word for weeping in the context of remembered places. Pindar Pindar (or Pindarus / Pindaros) (522 BC – 443 BC), considered the greatest of the nine lyric poets of ancient Greece, was born at Cynoscephalae, a village in Thebes. ... Georgius Gemistos ,or Plethon (or Pletho), (c. ... Please wikify (format) this article as suggested in the Guide to layout and the Manual of Style. ... Heraclitus by Johannes Moreelse Heraclitus of Ephesus (Greek Herakleitos) (about 535 - 475 BC), known as The Obscure, was a pre-Socratic Greek philosopher from Ephesus in Asia Minor. ... The Dryad by Evelyn De Morgan Dryads are female tree spirits in Greek mythology. ... Capital punishment, also referred to as the death penalty, is the judicially ordered execution of a prisoner as a punishment for a serious crime, often called a capital offense or a capital crime. ... Mencius (most accepted dates: 372 BC – 289 BC; other possible dates: 385 BC – 303 BC or 302 BC) was born in the State of Zou (鄒國), now forming the territory of the county-level city of Zoucheng (邹城市), Shandong province, only 30 km (18 miles) south of Qufu, the town of Confucius. ...

Close observation of a wasp building a mud nest returns the canto to earth and to the figure of Tiresias, last encountered in Cantos I and XLVII. The canto moves on through a long passage remembering Pound's time as Yeats' secretary in 1914 and a shorter meditation on the decline in standards in public life deriving from a remembered visit to the senate in the company of Pound's mother while that house was in session. The closing lines, "Down derry-down/Oh let an old man rest," return the poem from the world of memory to the poet's present plight. In Greek mythology, Tiresias (also transliterated as Teiresias) was a blind prophet, the son of the shepherd Everes and the nymph Chariclo. ...

Canto LXXXIV opens with the delivery of Dorothy Pound's first letter to the DTC on October 8. This letter contained news of the death in the war of J.P. Angold, a young English poet whom Pound admired. This news is woven through phrases from a lament by the troubadour Bertran de Born (which Pound had once translated as "Planh for the Young English King") and a double occurrence of the Greek word tethneke ("is dead") remembered from the story of the death of Pan in Canto XXIII. October 8 is the 281st day of the year (282nd in leap years). ... John Penrose Angold (c1909 - December 31, 1943) was a British poet and translator who died while serving with the RAF during World War II. A Collected Poems appeared in 1952. ... Bertran de Born (c. ... It has been suggested that Pane (mythology) be merged into this article or section. ...

This death, reviving memories of the poet's dead friends from World War I, is followed by a passage on Pound's 1939 visit to Washington, D.C. to try to avert American involvement in the forthcoming European war. Much of the rest of the canto is concerned with the economic basis of war and the general lack of interest in this subject on the part of historians and politicians; John Adams is again held up as an ideal. The canto also contains a reproduction, in Italian, of a conversation between the poet and a "swineherd's sister" through the DTC fence. He asks her if the American troops behave well and she replies OK. He then asks how they compare to the Germans and she replies that they are the same. Nickname the District Motto Justitia Omnibus (Justice for All) Location Location of Washington, D.C., with regard to the surrounding states of Maryland and Virginia. ...

The moon/goddess reappears at the core of the canto as "pin-up" and "chronometer" close to the line "out of all this beauty something must come". The closing lines of the canto, and of the sequence, "If the hoar frost grip thy tent / Thou wilt give thanks when night is spent", sound a final note of acceptance and resignation, despite the return to the sphere of action, prompted by the death of Angold, that marks most of the canto.

LXXXV – XCV (Section: Rock-Drill)

Senator Thomas Hart Benton, who opposed the establishment of the Bank of the United States. His Thirty Years View is a key source for this section of The Cantos.

Published in 1956 as Section: Rock-Drill, 85-95 de los cantares by New Directions, New York.

Pound was flown from Pisa to Washington to face trial on a charge of treason in 1946. Found unfit to stand trial because of the state of his mental health, he was incarcerated in St. Elizabeths Hospital, where he was to remain until 1958. Here he began to entertain writers and academics with an interest in his work and to write, working on translations of the Confucian Book of Odes and of Sophocles' play Women of Trachis as well as two new sections of the cantos; the first of these was Rock Drill. Senator Thomas Hart Benton. ... Senator Thomas Hart Benton. ... There were two organizations known as the Bank of the United States First Bank of the United States (1791-1811) Second Bank of the United States (1816-1841) Categories: Defunct banks ... St. ... Shī Jīng (詩經), translated variously as the Classic of Poetry, the Book of Songs or the Book of Odes, is the first major collection of Chinese poems. ... A Roman bust. ...

The two main written sources for the Rock Drill cantos are the Confucian Classic of History, in an edition by the French Jesuit Séraphin Couvreur, which contained the Chinese text and translations into Latin and French under the title Chou King (which Pound uses in the poem), and Senator Thomas Hart Benton's Thirty Years View: Or A History of the American Government for Thirty Years From 1820-1850, which covers the period of the bank wars. In as interview given in 1962, and reprinted by J. P. Sullivan (see References), Pound said that the title Rock Drill "was intended to imply the necessary resistance in getting a main thesis across — hammering." The Classic of History (書經/书经 Shū Jīng) is a collection of documents and speeches alleged to have been written by rulers and officials of the early Zhou period and before. ... Thomas Hart Benton (March 14, 1782–April 10, 1858), nicknamed Old Bullion, was an American Senator from Missouri and a staunch advocate of westward expansion of the United States. ... Ezra Pound in 1913 The Cantos by Ezra Pound is a long, incomplete poem in 120 sections, each of which is a canto. ...

The first canto in the sequence, Canto LXXXV, contains 104 Chinese characters from the Chou King, in addition to a number of Latin phrases, mostly taken from Couvreur's translation. There are also a small number of Greek words. The overall effect for the English-speaking reader is one of unreadability, and the canto is hard to elucidate unless read along side a copy of Couvreur's text.

The core meaning is summed up in Pound's footnote to the effect that the History Classic contains the essentials of the Confucian view of good government. In the canto, these are summed up in the line "Our dynasty came in because of a great sensibility", where sensibility translates the key character Ling, and in the reference to the four Tuan, or foundations, benevolence, rectitude, manners and knowledge. Rulers who Pound viewed as embodying some or all of these characteristics are adduced: Queen Elizabeth I, Cleopatra, Alexander the Great, as are Napoleon III, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Harry Dexter White, who stand for everything Pound opposes in government and finance. Elizabeth I, (7 September 1533–24 March 1603) was Queen of England, Queen of France (in name only), and Queen of Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death. ... Cleopatra VII Philopator (January 69 BC – August 12, 30 BC, Greek:Κλεοπάτρα Φιλοπάτωρ), later Cleopatra Thea Neotera Philopator kai Philopatris, was queen of ancient Egypt, the last member of the Ptolemaic dynasty and hence the last Hellenistic ruler of Egypt. ... Alexander the Great (Greek: Μέγας Αλέξανδρος Megas Alexandros; July 356 BC — June 11, 323 BC), King of Macedon (336–323 BC), is considered one of the most successful military commanders in world history, conquering most of the world known to the ancient Greeks before his death. ... Charles Louis Napoléon Bonaparte (April 20, 1808 - January 9, 1873) was the son of King Louis Bonaparte and Queen Hortense de Beauharnais; both monarchs of the French puppet state, the Kingdom of Holland. ... Franklin Delano Roosevelt (January 30, 1882–April 12, 1945), 32nd President of the United States, the longest-serving holder of the office and the only man to be elected President more than twice, was one of the central figures of 20th century history. ... Harry Dexter White (left) and John Maynard Keynes (right) at the Bretton Woods Conference Harry Dexter White (October 1892–August 16, 1948) was an American economist and senior U.S. Department of Treasury official. ...

The world of nature, Pound's source of wealth and spiritual nourishment, also features strongly; images of roots, grass and surviving traces of fertility rites in Catholic Italy cluster around the sacred tree Yggdrasil. The natural world and the world of government are related to tekhne or art. Richard of St. Victor, with his emphasis on modes of thinking, makes an appearance, in close company with Eriugena, the philosopher of light. This illustration shows a 19th century attempt to visualize the world view of the Prose Edda. ... Richard of St. ...

Canto LXXXVI opens with a passage on the Congress of Vienna and continues to hold up examples of good and bad rulers as defined by the poet with Latin and Chinese phrases from Couvreur woven through them. The word Sagetrieb, meaning something like the transmission of tradition, apparently coined by Pound, is repeated after its first use in the previous canto, underlining Pound's belief that he is transmitting a tradition of political ethics that unites China, Revolutionary America and his own beliefs. The Congress of Vienna was a conference between ambassadors from the major powers in Europe that was chaired by the Austrian statesman Klemens Wenzel von Metternich and held in Vienna, Austria, from September 1, 1814, to June 9, 1815. ...

Canto LXXXVII opens on usury and moves through a number of references to 'good' and 'bad' leaders and lawgivers interwoven with neo-platonist philosophers and images of the power of natural process. This culminates in a passage bringing together Laurence Binyon's dictum slowness is beauty, the San Ku, or three sages, figures from the Chou King who are responsible for the balance between heaven and earth, Jacques de Molay, the golden section, a room in the church of St. Hilaire, Poitiers built to that rule where one can stand without throwing a shadow, Mencius on natural phenomena, the 17th century English mystic John Heydon (who Pound remembered from his days working with Yeats) and other images relating to the worship of light including "'MontSegur, sacred to Helios". The canto then closes with more on economics. Robert Laurence Binyon (August 10, 1869 at Lancaster, England – March 10, 1943 at Reading, Berkshire) was a British poet, dramatist and art scholar. ... Jacques de Molay, nineteenth-century color lithograph by Chevauchet Jacques de Molay (est. ... The golden ratio is a number, approximately 1. ... Justice John Dyson Heydon (1943- ) is a Justice of the High Court of Australia; the highest court in the Australian court hierarchy. ... Helios in Greek In earlier Greek mythology, the sun was personified as a deity called Hêlios (Greek for the sun), whom Homer equates with the sun-titan Hyperion. ...

The following canto, Canto LXXXVIII, is almost entirely derived from Benton's book and focuses mainly on John Randolph of Roanoke and the campaign against the establishment of the Bank of the United States. Pound viewed the setting up of this bank as a selling out of the principles of economic equity on which the U.S. Constitution was based. At the centre of the canto there is a passage on monopolies that draws on the lives and writings of Thales of Miletus, the emperor Antoninus Pius and St. Ambrose, amongst others. Autographed portrait of John Randolph John Randolph (June 2, 1773 - May 24, 1833) was a Representative and a Senator from Virginia, USA. He was born in Cawsons, Virginia, and was known as John Randolph of Roanoke to distinguish him from relatives. ... There were two organizations known as the Bank of the United States First Bank of the United States (1791-1811) Second Bank of the United States (1816-1841) Categories: Defunct banks ... For the French electronics and defence contractor, see Thales Group Thales (in Greek: Θαλης) of Miletus (circa 635 BC - 543 BC), also known as Thales the Milesian, was a pre-Socratic Greek philosopher and one of the Seven Sages of Greece. ... Emperor Antoninus Pius Sestertius of Antoninus Pius, with the personification of Italia on reverse. ... Saint Ambrose, Latin Sanctus Ambrosius, Italian SantAmbrogio (circa 340 - April 4, 397), bishop of Milan, was one of the most eminent fathers of the Christian church in the 4th century. ...

Canto LXXXIX continues with Benton and also draws on Alexander del Mar's A History of Money Systems. The same examples of good rule are drawn on, with the addition of the Emperor Aurelian. Possibly in defence of his focus on so much "unpoetical" material, Pound quotes Rodolphus Agricola to the effect that one writes "to move, to teach or to delight" (ut moveat, ut doceat, ut delectet), with the implication that the present cantos are designed to teach. The naturalists Alexander von Humboldt and Louis Agassiz are mentioned in passing. Lucius Domitius Aurelianus (September 9, 214–275), known in English as Aurelian, Roman Emperor (270–275), was the second of several highly successful soldier-emperors who helped the Roman Empire regain its power during the latter part of the third century and the beginning of the fourth. ... Rodolphus Agricola (February 17, 1444 – October 27, 1485), was a Dutch scholar and humanist. ... Friedrich Heinrich Alexander, Baron von Humboldt, (September 14, 1769, Berlin–May 6, 1859, Berlin), was a German naturalist and explorer, and the younger brother of the Prussian minister, philosopher, and linguist Wilhelm von Humboldt. ... Louis Agassiz Jean Louis Rodolphe Agassiz (May 28, 1807-December 14, 1873) was a Swiss-born American zoologist, glaciologist, and geologist, the husband of educator Elizabeth Cabot Cary Agassiz, and one of the first world-class American scientists. ...

Apart from a passing reference to Randolph of Roanoke, Canto XC moves to the world of myth and love, both divine and sexual. The canto opens with an epigraph in Latin to the effect that while the human spirit is not love, it delights in the love that proceeds from it. The Latin is paraphrased in English as the final lines of the canto. Following a reference to signatures in nature and Yggdrasil, the poet introduces Baucis and Philemon, an aged couple who, in a story from Ovid's Metamorphoses, offer hospitality to the gods in their humble house and are rewarded. In this context, they may be intended to represent the poet and his wife. Philemon and Baucis, Adam Elsheimer, 1600. ... Engraved frontispiece of George Sandyss 1632 London edition of Publius Ovidius Naso (Sulmona, March 20, 43 BC â€“ Tomis, now Constanta AD 17) Roman poet known to the English-speaking world as Ovid, wrote on topics of love, abandoned women, and mythological transformations. ... Cover of George Sandyss 1632 edition of The Metamorphoses by the Roman poet Ovid is a poem in fifteen books that describes the creation and history of the world in terms of Greek and Roman mythology. ...

This canto then moves to the fountain of Castalia on Parnassus. This fountain was sacred to the Muses and its water was said to inspire poetry in those who drank it. The next line, "Templum aedificans not yet marble" refers to a period when the gods were worshiped in natural settings prior to the rigid codification of religion as represented by the erection of marble temples. The "fount in the hills fold" and the erect temple (Templum aedificans) also serve as images of sexual love. Castalia, in Greek and Roman mythology was a nymph whom Apollo transformed into a fountain at Delphi, at the base of Mt. ... Mount Parnassus (also Mount Parnassos) is a mountain in central Greece that towers above Delphi. ... MuSE is an acronym that stands for Multiple Streaming Engine. ...

Pound then invokes Amphion, the mythical founder of music, before recalling the San Ku/St Hilaire/Jacques de Molay/Eriugena/Sagetrieb cluster from Canto LXXXVII. Then the goddess appears in a number of guises: the moon, Mother Earth (in the Randolph reference), the Sibyl (last encountered in the context of the American Revolution in Canto LXIV), Isis and Kuanon. In a litany, she is thanked for raising Pound up (m'elevasti, a reference to Dante's praise of his beloved Beatrice in the Paradiso) out of hell (Erebus). There are two characters named Amphion in Greek mythology: Amphion, the brother of Zethus Amphion son of Hyperasius and Hypso, an Argonaut ... It has been suggested that Isis in literature be merged into this article or section. ... In Greek mythology, Erebus, or Érebos was a primordial god, the personification of darkness, offspring of Chaos alone. ...

The canto closes with a number of instances of sexual love between gods and humans set in a paradisiacal vision of the natural world. The invocation of the goddess and the vision of paradise are sandwiched between two citations of Richard of St. Victor's statement ubi amor, ibi oculuc est ("where love is, there the eye is"), binding together the concepts of love, light and vision in a single image.

Canto XCI continues the paradisiacal theme, opening with a snatch of the "clear song" of Provençe. The central images are the invented figure Ra-Set, a composite sun/moon deity whose boat floats on a river of crystal. The crystal image, which is to remain important until the end of The Cantos, is a composite of frozen light, the emphasis on inorganic form found in the writings of the 17th century mystic John Heydon, secretary of nature, who Pound first encountered via Yeats, the air in Dante's Paradiso, and the mirror of crystal in the Chou King amongst other sources. Apollonius of Tyana appears, as do Helen of Tyre, partner of Simon Magus and the emperor Justinian and his consort Theodora. These couples can be seen as variants on Ra-Set. , , or This article is about the Egyptian god. ... In mathematics, a set can be thought of as any collection of distinct things considered as a whole. ... Justice John Dyson Heydon (1943- ) is a Justice of the High Court of Australia; the highest court in the Australian court hierarchy. ... Apollonius of Tyana (13 March 2 – 98?) was a Neo-Pythagorean philosopher and teacher of Greek origin. ... Simon Magus, also known as Simon the Sorcerer and Simon of Gitta, is the name used by the ancient Christian Orthodoxy to refer to someone they identified as a Samaritan (Proto-)Gnostic, and, also according to ancient Christian Orthodoxy, founder of his own religious sect. ... Justinian I depicted on one of the famous mosaics of the Basilica of San Vitale. ... Theodora can refer to any of the following: Flavia Maximiana Theodora, daughter of the Roman Emperor Maximian and second wife of the Emperor Constantius I Chlorus. ...

Much of the rest of the canto consists of references to mystic doctrines of light, vision and intellection. There is an extract from a hymn to Diana from Layamon's 12th century poem Brut. An italicised section, claiming that the 1913 foundation of the Federal Reserve Bank, which took power over interest rates away from Congress, and the teaching of Marx and Freud in American universities ("beaneries") are examples of what Julien Benda termed La trahison des clercs, contains anti-Semitic language. Towards the close of the canto, the reader is returned to the world of Odysseus; a line from Book 5 of the Odyssey tells of the winds breaking up the hero's boat and is followed shortly by Leucothea, "Kadamon thugater" or Cadmon's daughter) offering him her veil to carry him to shore ("my bikini is worth yr raft"). Diana was the equivalent in Roman mythology of the Greek Artemis (see Roman/Greek equivalency in mythology for more details). ... Layamon, or Laȝamon (using the archaic letter yogh), was a poet of the early 13th century, whose Brut (c. ... Federal Reserve Districts The United States Federal Reserve System consists of twelve Federal Reserve Banks, each responsible for a particular district, and some with branches. ... Marx is a common German surname. ... Sigmund Freud His famous couch Sigmund Freud (May 6, 1856 - September 23, 1939) was an Austrian neurologist and the founder of the psychoanalytic school of psychology, a movement that popularized the theory that unconscious motives control much behavior. ... Julien Benda (December 26, 1867 - June 7, 1956) was a French philosopher and novelist. ... In Greek mythology, Leucothea (Greek Leukothea, the White Goddess) was one of the aspects under which an ancient sea goddess was recognized. ...

An image of the distribution of seeds from the sacred mountain opens Canto XCII, continuing the concern with the relationship between natural process and the divine. The kernel of this canto is the idea that the Roman Empire's preference for Christianity over Apollonius and its lack respect for its currency resulted in the almost total loss of the 'true' religious tradition for 1000 years. A number of neoplatonic philosophers, familiar from earlier cantos but with the addition of Avicenna, are listed as representing a fine thread of light in these dark ages. For other uses, see Roman Empire (disambiguation). ... The works of Avicenna, the greatest of the medieval Persian physicians, played a crucial role in the European Renaissance. ...

Canto XCIII opens with a quote, "A man's paradise is his good nature", taken from The Maxims of King Kati to His Son Merikara. The canto then proceeds to look at examples of benevolent action by public figures that, for Pound, illustrate this maxim. These include Apollonius making his peace with animals, Saint Augustine on the need to feed people before attempting to convert them, and Dante and Shakespeare writing on distributive justice, an aspect of their work that the poet points out is generally overlooked. Central to this aspect is a fragment from Dante, non fosse cive, taken from a passage in Paradiso, Canto VIII, in which Dante is asked "would it be worse for man on earth if he were not a citizen?" and unhesitatingly answers in the affirmative. For the East Asian measure of weight, see Catty Kati is a town in Malis Koulikoro Region, about 15 km from Bamako, Malis capital. ... Aurelius Augustinus, Augustine of Hippo, or Saint Augustine (November 13, 354–August 28, 430) was one of the most important figures in the development of Western Christianity. ... William Shakespeare—born April 1564; baptised April 26, 1564; died April 23, 1616 (O.S.), May 3, 1616 (N.S.)—has a reputation as the greatest of all writers in English. ...

Towards the end of the canto, the Make it new ideograms from Canto LIII reappear as the poem moves back towards the world of myth, closing with another phrase from the Divine Comedy, this time from Purgatorio, Canto XXVIII. The phrase tu mi fai rimembrar translates as "you remind me" and comes from a passage in which Dante addresses Matilda, the presiding spirit of the Garden of Eden. What she reminds him of is Persephone at the moment that she is abducted by Hades and the spring flowers fell from her lap. This blending of a pagan sense of the divine into a Christian context stands for much of what appealed to Pound in medieval mysticism. The Fall of Man by Lucas Cranach, a 16th century German depiction of Eden The Garden of Eden (from Hebrew Gan Ēden, גַּן עֵדֶן) is described by the Book of Genesis as being the place where the first man - Adam - and woman - Eve - lived after they were created by God. ...

We return to the world of books in Canto XCIV. The canto opens with the name of Hendrik van Brederode, a lost leader of the Dutch Revolution, forgotten while William I, Prince of Orange is remembered. This name is lifted from correspondence between John Adams and Benjamin Rush which was finally published in 1898 by Alexander Biddle, a descendant of Pound's 'villain' Nicholas. The rest of the canto consists mainly of paraphrases and quotations from Philostratus' Life of Apollonius. At its conclusion, the poem returns to the world of light via Ra-Set and Ocellus. William I (William the Silent) William (I) of Orange-Nassau (April 24, 1533 – July 10, 1584), also widely known as William the Silent, was born in the house of Nassau, and became Prince of Orange in 1544. ... Dr. Benjamin Rush painted by Charles Wilson Peale, 1783 Dr. Benjamin Rush (December 24, 1745–April 19, 1813) was a Founding Father of the United States. ... Philostratus, was the name of several, three (or four), Greek sophists of the Roman imperial period: Philostratus the Athenian (c. ...

Canto XLV opens with the word LOVE in block capitals and recaps many of the Rock Drill examples of the relationship between love, light and politics. A passage deriving polis from a Greek root word for ploughing also returns us to Pound's belief that society and economic activity are based on natural productivity. The canto, and sequence, then closes with an extended treatment of the passage from the fifth book of the Odyssey in which a drowning Odysseus/Pound is rescued by Leucothea.

XCVI – CIX (Thrones)

First published as Thrones: 96-109 de los cantares. New York: New Directions, 1959.

Sir Edward Coke: "the clearest mind ever in England" (Canto CVII.

Thrones was the second volume of cantos written while Pound was incarcerated in St. Elizabeth's. In the same 1962 interview, Pound said of this section of the poem: "The thrones in Dante's Paradiso are for the spirits of the people who have been responsible for good government. The thrones in The Cantos are an attempt to move out from egoism and to establish some definition of an order possible or at any rate conceivable on earth… Thrones concerns the states of mind of people responsible for something more than their personal conduct." This image has been released into the public domain by the copyright holder, its copyright has expired, or it is ineligible for copyright. ... This image has been released into the public domain by the copyright holder, its copyright has expired, or it is ineligible for copyright. ...

The opening canto of the sequence, Canto XCVI, begins with a fragmentary synopsis of the decline of the Roman Empire and the rise of the Byzantine Empire in the east and of the Carolingian Empire, Germanic kingdoms and the Lombards in Western Europe. This culminates in a detailed passage on the Book of the Prefect (or Eparch), in Greek the Eparchikon Biblion, a 9th century edict of the Emperor Leo VI. This document, which was based on Roman law, lays out the rules that governed the Byzantine Guild system, including the setting of just prices and so on. The original Greek is quoted extensively and an aside claiming the right to write for a specialist audience is included. The close attention paid to the actual words prefigures the closer focus on philology in this section of the poem. This focus on words ties in closely with what Pound referred to as the method of "luminous detail", in which fragments of language intended to form the most compressed expression of an image or idea act as tesserae in the making of these late cantos. Romulus Augustus, the last of the Western Roman Emperors. ... Byzantine Empire (Greek: Βυζαντινή Αυτοκρατορία) is the term conventionally used since the 19th century to describe the Greek-speaking Roman Empire during the Middle Ages, centered at its capital in Constantinople. ... Map of Carolingian Empire The term Carolingian Empire is sometimes used to refer to the realm of the Franks under the dynasty of the Carolingians. ... Places where monarchies maintain rule appear in blue. ... The Lombards (Latin Langobardi, from which the alternative name Longobards found in older English texts), were a Germanic people originally from Northern Europe that entered the late Roman Empire. ... A common understanding of Western Europe in modern times. ... This article is about the Byzantine Emperor. ... A guild is an association of people of the same trade or pursuits (with a similar skill or craft), formed to protect mutual interests and maintain standards of morality or conduct. ... Philology is the study of ancient texts and languages. ... A tessera (plural: tesserae, diminutive tessella) is an individual tile in a mosaic, usually formed in the shape of a cube. ...

Canto XCVII draws heavily on Alexander del Mar's History of Monetary Systems in a survey ranging from Abd al Melik, the first Caliph to strike distinctly Islamic coinage, through Athelstan, who helped introduce the guild system into England, to the American Revolution. The canto closes with a passage that sees the return of the goddess as moon and Fortuna together with Greek forms of solar worship and the Flamen Dialis that is intended to integrate gold and silver as attributes of coin and the divine. Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan (Arabic: عبد المالك بن مروان ) (646 - 705) was an Umayyad caliph. ... Caliph is the term or title for the Islamic leader of the Ummah, or community of Islam. ... Islam (Arabic: ; ( ▶ (help· info)), the submission to God) is a monotheistic faith, one of the Abrahamic religions and the worlds second-largest religion. ... Athelstan (c. ... In Roman mythology, Fortuna was the personification of luck, hopefully of good luck. ... The Flamen Dialis was an important position in Roman religion. ...

After an opening passage that draws together many of the main themes of the poem through images of Ra-Set, Ocellus on light (echoing Eriugena), the tale of Gassire's Lute, Leucothoe' s rescue of Odysseus, Helen of Troy, Gemisto, Demeter and Plotinus, Canto XCVIII turns to the Sacred Edict of the emperor K'ang Hsi. This is a 17th century set of maxims on good government written in a high literary style, but later simplified for a broader audience. Pound draws on one such popular version, by Wang the Commissioner of the Imperial Salt Works in a translation by F.W. Baller. Comparison is drawn between this Chinese text and the Book of the Prefect and the canto closes with images of light as divine creation drawn from Dante's Paradiso. Helen was the wife of Menelaus and reputed to be the most beautiful woman in the world, and her abduction by Paris brought about the Trojan War. ... This article needs cleanup, so as to conform to a higher standard. ...

K'ang Hsi's son Iong Cheng published commentaries on his father's maxims and these form the basis for Canto XCIX. The main theme of this canto is one of harmony between human society and the natural order, and a number of passing references are made to related items from earlier cantos: Confucius, Kati, Dante on citizenship, the Book of the Prefect and Plotinus amongst them. Canto C covers a range of examples of European and American statesman who Pound sees as exemplifying the maxims of the Sacred Edict to a greater or lesser extent. At the core of this canto, the motif of Luecothoe's veil (kredemnon) resurfaces; this time, the hero has reached the safety of the shore and returns the magic garment to the goddess. The Yongzheng Emperor (born Yinzhen 胤禛) (December 13, 1678 - October 8, 1735) was the fourth emperor of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, and the third Qing emperor to rule over China, from 1722 to 1735. ...

The main focus of Canto CI is around the Greek phrase kalon kagathon (the beautiful and good), which calls to mind Plotinus' attitude to the world of things and the more general Greek belief in the moral aspect of beauty. This canto introduces the figure of St. Anselm of Canterbury, who is to feature over the rest of this section of the long poem. Canto CII returns to the island of Calypso and Odysseus' voyage to Hades from Book 10 of the Odyssey. There are a number of references to vegetation cults and sacrifices and the canto closes by returning to the world of Byzantium and the decline of the Western Empire. Saint Anselm of Canterbury (1033 or 1034 – April 21, 1109), a widely influential medieval philosopher and theologian, held the office of Archbishop of Canterbury from 1093 to 1109. ...

Cantos CIII and CIV range over a number of examples of the relationships between war, money and government drawn from American and European history and mostly familiar from earlier sections of the work. The latter canto is notable for Pound's suggestion that both Honoré Mirabeau in his imprisonment and Ovid in his exile "had it worse" than Pound in his incarceration. Portrait of Mirabeau Honoré Gabriel Riqueti, Comte de Mirabeau, (often referred to simply as Mirabeau) (March 9, 1749 - April 2, 1791) was a French writer, popular orator and statesman. ...

At the core of Canto CV are a number of citations and quotations from the writings of St. Anselm. This 11th century philosopher and inventor of the ontological argument for the existence of God who wrote poems in rhymed prose appealed to Pound because of his emphasis on the role of reason in religion and his envisioning of the divine essence as light. In the 1962 interview already quoted, Pound points to Anselm's clash with William Rufus over his investiture as part of the history of the struggle for individual rights. Pound also claims in this canto that Anselm's writings influenced Cavalcanti and Francois Villon. In theology and the philosophy of religion, an ontological argument for the existence of God is an argument that Gods existence can be proved a priori, that is, by intuition and reason alone. ... William II (called Rufus, perhaps because of his red-faced appearance, or maybe his bloody reign) (c. ... François Villon (1431 - c. ...

Canto CVI turns to visions of the goddess as fertility symbol via Demeter and Persephone, in her lunar, love aspect as Selena, Helen and Aphrodite Euploia ("of safe voyages") and as hunter Athene (Proneia: "of forethought," the form in which she is worshiped at Delphi) and Diana (through quotes from Layamon). The sun as Zeus/Helios also features. These vision fragments are cross-cut with an invocation of the Taoist Kuan Tzu (Book of Master Kuan). This work argues that the mind should rule the body as the basis of good living and good governance. Selena Quintanilla Pérez (April 16, 1971 – March 31, 1995), best known as Selena, was a Mexican-American singer, who, at the time of her death, was considered a budding superstar, and had been referred to as the queen of Tejano music. ... For other uses of the words tao and dao, see Dao (disambiguation). ...

Another such figure, the English jurist and champion of civil liberties Sir Edward Coke, dominates the final three cantos of this section. These cantos, CVII, CVIII, CIX, consist mainly of 'luminous details' lifted from Coke's Institutes, a comprehensive study of English law up to his own time. In Canto CVII, Coke is placed in a river of light tradition that also includes Confucius, Ocellus and Agassiz. This canto also refers to Dante's vision of philosophers that reveal themselves as light in the Paradiso. In Canto CVIII, Pound highlights Coke's view that minting coin "Pertain(s) to the King onely" and passages on sources of state revenue. He also draws a comparison between Coke and Iong Cheng. A similar parallel between Coke and the author of the Book of the Eparch is highlighted in Canto CIX. A jurist is a professional who studies, develops, applies or otherwise deals with the law. ... Sir Edward Coke Sir Edward Coke (pronounced cook) (1 February 1552–3 September 1634), educated at Norwich School, was an early English colonial entrepreneur and jurist whose writings on the English common law were the definitive legal texts for some 300 years. ... The Yongzheng Emperor (born Yinzhen 胤禛) (December 13, 1678 - October 8, 1735) was the fourth emperor of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, and the third Qing emperor to rule over China, from 1722 to 1735. ...

The canto, and section, ends with a reference to the following lines from the second canto of the Paradiso:

O voi che siete in piccioletta barca,

desiderosi d’ascoltar, seguiti

dietro al mio legno che cantando varca,

tornate a riveder li vostri liti:

non vi mettete in pelago, ché forse,

perdendo me, rimarreste smarriti.

("O ye, who are in a little bark, desirous to listen, following behind my craft which singing passes on, turn to see again Your shores; put not out upon the deep; for haply losing me, ye would remain astray." Translation by Charles Eliot Norton) The brothers Charles Benjamin Norton, Frank Henry Norton, and Charles Eliot Norton, between 1853-1855. ...

This reference signalled Pound's intent to close the poem with a final volume based on his own paradisiacal vision.

Drafts and fragments of Cantos CX - CXVII

Voltaire, who said "I hate no one/not even Fréron" (Canto CXIV), reflecting the theme of confronting hatred in this section of the poem.

First published as Drafts and Fragments of Cantos CX - CXVII. New York: New Directions, 1969.

In 1958, Pound was declared incurably insane and permanently incapable of standing trial. Consequent on this, he was released from St Elizabeth's on condition that he return to Europe, which he promptly did. At first, he lived with his daughter Mary in the Tyrol, but soon returned to Rapallo. A crisis of belief (In November 1959, Pound wrote to his publisher James Laughlin that he "has forgotten what or which politics he ever had. Certainly has none now."), together with the effects of aging meant that the proposed paradise cantos were slow in coming and turned out to be radically different to anything the poet had envisaged. From [1], in the public domain This image is in the public domain because its copyright has expired in the United States and those countries with a copyright term of life of the author plus 100 years. ... From [1], in the public domain This image is in the public domain because its copyright has expired in the United States and those countries with a copyright term of life of the author plus 100 years. ... The Tyrol is a historical region in Western Central Europe, which includes the Austrian state of Tyrol (consisting of North Tyrol and East Tyrol) and the Italian regions known as the South Tyrol and Trentino. ... James Laughlin (October 30, 1914 - November 12, 1997) was an American poet, publisher, and man of letters. ...

Pound was reluctant to publish these late cantos, but the appearance in 1967 of a pirate edition of Cantos 110-116 forced his hand. Laughlin pushed Pound to publish an authorised edition, and the poet responded by supplying the more-or-less abandoned drafts and fragments he had, plus two fragments dating from 1941. The resulting book, therefore, can hardly be described as representing Pound's definitive planned ending to the poem. This situation has been further complicated by the addition of more fragments in editions of the complete poem published after the poet's death. One of these was titled Canto CXX at one point, on no particular authority. This title was later removed.

Although some of Pound's intention to "write a paradise" survives in the text as we have it, especially in images of light and of the natural world, other themes also intruded. These include the poet's coming to terms with a sense of artistic failure, and jealousies and hatreds that must be faced and expiated.

Canto CX opens with a pun on the word wake, conflating the wake of the little boat from the end of the previous canto and an image of Pound waking in his daughter's house in the Tyrol both from sleep and, by extension, from the nightmare of his prolonged incarceration. The goddess appears as Kuanon, Artemis and Hebe (through her characteristic epithet Kallistragalos, "of fair ankles"), the goddess of youth. The Buddhist painter Toba Sojo represents directness of artistic handling. In Greek mythology, Hêbê (Greek: Ἥβη) was the goddess of youth (Roman equivalent: Juventas). ...

The Noh figure of Awoi (from AOI NO UE), ravaged by jealousy, reappears together with the poet Ono no Komachi, the central character in two more Noh plays translated by Pound. She represents a life spent meditating on beauty which resulted in vanity and ended in loss and solitude. The canto draws to a close with the phrase Lux enim ("light indeed") and an image of the oval moon.

Pound's "nice, quite paradise" is seen, in the Notes for Canto CXI, to be based on serenity, pity, intelligence and individual acceptance of responsibility as illustrated by Talleyrand. This theme is continued in the short extract titled from Canto CXII, which also draws on the wok of the anthropologist and explorer Joseph F. Rock in recording legends and religious rituals from China and Tibet. Again, this section of the poem closes with an image of the moon. Charles Maurice de Talleyrand Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord (February 2, 1754 - May 17, 1838) was a French diplomat. ... Tibet (older spelling Thibet; Tibetan: བོད་, Bod, pronounced pö in Lhasa dialect; Chinese: 西藏, Pinyin: Xīzàng or Chinese: 藏区, Pinyin: Zàngqū [the two names are used with different connotations; see Name section below]) is a region in Central Asia and the home of the Tibetan people. ...

Canto CXIII opens with an image of the sun moving through the zodiac, the first of a number of cycle images that occur through the canto, recalling a line from Pound's version of "AOI NO UE; Man’s life is a wheel on the axle, there is no turn whereby to escape". A reference to Marcella Spann, a young woman whose presence in the Tyrol further complicated the already strained relationships between the poet, his wife Dorothy and his lover Olga Rudge, casts further light on the recurrent jealousy theme. The phrase "Syrian onyx" lifted from his 1919 Homage to Sextus Propertius, where it occurs in a section that paraphrases Propertius' instructions to his lover on how to behave after his death, reflects the elderly Pound's sense of his own mortality. Sextus Aurelius Propertius was a Latin elegiac poet born between 57 BC and 46 BC in or near Mevania, who died in around 12 BC. Like Virgil and Ovid, Propertius was also a member of the poetic circle of neoteric poets which collected around Mæcenas. ...

The theme of hatred is addressed directly at the opening of Canto CXIV where Voltaire is quoted to the effect that he hates nobody, not even his archenemy Elie Freron. The remainder of this canto is primarily concerned with recognising indebtedness to the poet's genetic and cultural ancestors. The short extract from Canto CXV is a reworking from an earlier version first published in the Belfast-based magazine Threshold in 1962 and centres around two main ideas. The first of these is the hostilities that existed between Pound's modernist friends and the negative impact that this had on all their works. The second is the image of the poet as a 'blown husk', again a borrowing from the Noh, this time the play Kakitsubata. The last of Voltaires statues by Jean-Antoine Houdon (1781). ... WGS-84 (GPS) Coordinates: 54. ...

Canto CXVI was the last canto completed by Pound. It opens with a passage in which we see the Odysseus/Pound figure, homecoming achieved, reconciled with the sea-god. However, the home achieved is not the place intended when the poem was begun but is the terzo cielo ("third heaven") of human love. The canto contains the following well-known lines:

I have brought the great ball of crystal;

Who can lift it?

Can you enter the great acorn of light?

But the beauty is not the madness

Tho' my errors and wrecks lie about me.

And I am not a demigod,

I cannot make it cohere.

This passage has often been taken as an admission of failure on Pound's part, but the reality may be more complex. The crystal image relates back to the Sacred Edict on self-knowledge and the demigod/cohere lines relate directly to Pound's translation of the Women of Trachis. In this, the demigod Herakles cries out "WHAT SPLENDOUR/IT ALL COHERES" as he is dying. These lines read in conjunction with the later "i.e. it coheres all right/even if my notes do not cohere" point towards the conclusion that towards the end of his effort, Pound was coming to accept not only his own "errors" and "madness" but the conclusion that it was beyond him, and possibly beyond poetry, to do justice to the coherence of the universe. Images of light that saturate this canto, culminating in the closing lines: "A little light, like a rushlight / to lead back to splendour". These lines again echo the Noh of Kakitsubata, the "light that does not lead on to darkness" in Pound's version. A demigod, a half-god, is a modern distinction, often misapplied in Greek mythology. ... For the son of Alexander the Great, see Heracles (Macedon). ...

This final complete canto is followed by the two 1940s fragments. The first of these, Addendum for C, is a rant against usury that moves a bit away from the usual anti-Semitism in the line the defiler, beyond race and against race. The second is an untitled fragment that prefigures the Pisan sequence in its nature imagery and its reference to Jannequin.

Notes for Canto CXVII et seq. originally consisted of three fragments, with a fourth, the sometimes Canto CXX, added after Pound's death. The first of these has the poet raising an altar to Bacchus (Zagreus) and his mother Semele, whose death was as a result of jealousy. The second centres on the lines "that I lost my center/fighting the world". The third fragment is the one that is also known as Canto CXX. It is, in fact, some rescued lines from the earlier version of from Canto CXV, and has Pound asking forgiveness for his actions from both the gods and those he loves. The final fragment returns to beginnings with the name of François Bernonad, the French printer of A Draft of XVI Cantos. After quoting two phrases from Bernart de Ventadorn's Can vei la lauzeta mover, a poem in which the speaker determines to abandon love because he has been rejected, the fragment closes with the line "To be men, not destroyers." This stood as the close of The Cantos until later editions appended the two Italian cantos LXXII and LXXIII and a brief dedicatory fragment addressed to Olga Rudge. In Greek mythology, Semele, daughter of Cadmus and Harmonia, was the mother of Dionysus (the god and his votaries were both identified as Bacchus) by Zeus. ...

Legacy

Despite all the controversy surrounding both poem and poet, The Cantos has been influential in the development of English-language long poems since the appearance of the early sections during the 1920s. Amongst poets of Pound's own generation, both H.D. and William Carlos Williams wrote long poems that show this influence. H.D. in the mid 1910s Hilda Doolittle (September 10, 1886, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania – September 27, 1961, Zürich), prominently known only by her initials H.D., was an American poet, novelist and memoirist. ... William Carlos Williams Dr. William Carlos Williams (sometimes known as WCW) (September 17, 1883 – March 4, 1963), was an American poet closely associated with Modernism and Imagism. ...

Almost all of H.D.'s poetry from 1940 onwards takes the form of long sequences, and her Helen in Egypt, written during the 1950s, covers much of the same Homeric ground as The Cantos, but from a feminist perspective and the three sequences that make up Hermetic Definition (1972) include direct quotations from Pound's poem. In the case of Williams, his Paterson (1963) follows Pound in using incidents and documents from the early history of the United States as part of its material. As with Pound, Williams includes Alexander Hamilton as the villain of the piece.

Pound was a major influence on the Objectivist poets, and the impact of The Cantos on Zukofsky's "A" has already been noted. The other major long work by an Objectivist, Charles Reznikoff's Testimony, (1934 – 1978) follows Pound in the direct use of primary source documents as its raw material. In the next generation of American poets, Charles Olson also drew on Pound's example in writing his own unfinished Modernist epic The Maximus Poems. William Carlos Williams, who was the only poet to be published as both an Objectivist and an Imagist The Objectivist poets were a loose-knit group of second-generation Modernists who emerged in the 1930s. ... Charles Reznikoff (August 31, 1894 - January 22, 1976) was the poet for whom the term Objectivist was first coined. ... Charles Olson (27 December 1910 - 10 January 1970) was an important 2nd generation American modernist poet who was a crucial link between earlier figures like Ezra Pound and William Carlos Williams and such later avant garde groups as the Beats and L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E. He...

Pound was also an important figure for the poets of the Beat generation, especially Gary Snyder and Allen Ginsberg. Snyder's interest in things Chinese and Japanese stemmed from his early reading of Pound's writings and his long poem Mountains and Rivers Without End (1965 – 1996) reflects his reading of The Cantos in many of the formal devices used. In Ginsberg's development, reading Pound was influential in his move away from the long, Whitmanesque lines of his early poetry, including towards the more varied metric and inclusive approach to a variety of subjects in the single poem that is to be found especially in his book-length sequences Planet News (1968) and The Fall of America: Poems of These States (1973). The term Beat Generation refers primarily to a group of American writers of the 1950s whose work strongly influenced the cultural transformations of the 60s. ... Young Gary Snyder, on one of his early book covers Gary Snyder (born May 8, 1930) is an American poet, essayist, lecturer, and environmental activist. ... Allen Ginsberg in later life Irwin Allen Ginsberg (IPA: ) (June 3, 1926 – April 5, 1997) was an American Beat poet born in Newark, New Jersey. ... Walt Whitman Walt Whitman (born Walter Whitman) (May 31, 1819 – March 26, 1892) was an American poet, essayist, journalist, and humanist born in West Hills, Huntington on Long Island in New York. ...

More generally, The Cantos, with its wide range of references and inclusion of primary sources including prose texts can be seen as prefiguring found poetry. Pound's tacit insistence that this material becomes poetry because of his action in including it in a text he chose to call a poem also prefigures the attitudes and practices that underlie 20th-century Conceptual art. Found poetry is the rearrangement of words or phrases taken randomly from other sources (example: clipped newspaper headlines, bits of advertising copy, handwritten cards wertwrwerwergreat, can stretch a cord, however fine, into a horizontal line that shall be absolutely straight. ... Conceptual art, sometimes called idea art, is art in which the concept(s) or idea(s) involved are considered the real substance of the art, in distinction to the traditional expectation of a made art object to be the criterion. ...

References

Print

• Ackroyd, Peter. Ezra Pound and his world (Thames and Hudson, 1980). ISBN 0-0500-13069-8
• Bacigalupo, Massimo. "America in Ezra Pound's Posthumous Cantos." Journal of Modern Literature 27.1-2 (2003-2004): 90-98. ISSN 0022-281X
• Cookson, William. A Guide to the Cantos of Ezra Pound (Anvil, 1985). ISBN 0-892-55246-8
• Flory, Wendy Stallard. ‘The Return to Italy: "To Confess Wrong . . ."’. In The American Ezra Pound. (New Haven: Yale UP, 1989).
• Flory, Wendy Stallard. "Pound and Antisemitism." The Cambridge Companion to Ezra Pound. Ed. Ira B. Nadel (Cambridge University Press, 1999) ISBN 9780521649209
• Kenner, Hugh. The Pound Era (Faber and Faber, 1975 edition). ISBN 0-571-10668-4
• Sullivan, J.P. (ed). Ezra Pound (Penguin critical anthologies series, 1970). ISBN 14-080033-6
• Terrell, Carroll F. A Companion to The Cantos of Ezra Pound (University of California Press, 1980). ISBN 0-520-08287-7

Online Peter Ackroyd (born October 5, 1949 in London) is a British author. ... William Cookson (May 8, 1939–January 2, 2003) was a British poet, writer on poetry and literary editor, known for his influential poetry magazine Agenda and his guide to The Cantos of Ezra Pound, of whom he was a follower. ... Hugh Kenner (January 7, 1923 – November 24, 2003), Canadian literary scholar, critic, & professor. ...

• Marjorie Perloff on Pound Captured December 9, 2004.
• A Hypervortext of Ezra Pound's Canto LXXXI Captured January 4, 2005.
• Peter Stoicheff on the publication history of Drafts and Fragments Captured February 10, 2005.
• Recording of Pound reading "Usura" Canto XLV

December 9 is the 343rd day (344th in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 2004 (MMIV) was a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... January 4 is the 4th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... February 10 is the 41st day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

See also

• List of cultural references in The Cantos