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Ezra Pound and his POetry

By: Harrison Eckert Pd : 4. Ezra Pound and his POetry. Overview of Presentation. Brief Biography Literary Forms and Contributions Acclaimed Works: Cathay ; Homage to Sextus Propertius ; Hugh Selwyn Mauberley The Cantos— His Prize Piece Imprisonment and Mental Breakdown

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Ezra Pound and his POetry

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  1. By: Harrison Eckert Pd: 4 Ezra Pound and his POetry

  2. Overview of Presentation • Brief Biography • Literary Forms and Contributions • Acclaimed Works: Cathay; Homage to Sextus Propertius; Hugh Selwyn Mauberley • The Cantos—His Prize Piece • Imprisonment and Mental Breakdown • Pound’s Legacy

  3. Brief Biography • Early Life: • Death:

  4. Where did he live?

  5. Pound’s Personality:

  6. The Women: Dorothy Shakespeare: Olga Rudge:

  7. Literary Forms and Contributions • Diverse Interests: • Translator: ( i.e. Chinese, Japanese, and Old Germanic) • Imagism

  8. Literary Forms and Contributions • Diverse Interests: • Promoter: (T.S. Eliot, Ernest Hemingway, Robert Frost)

  9. Literary Forms and Contributions • Diverse Interests: • Critic: • Political • Social • Economic

  10. Acclaimed Works • Cathay: • Parallel between Chinese poetry and Japanese drama to World War I • Thumbs down by readers

  11. Acclaimed Works • Homage to Sextus Propertius: • Pound’s first extended poem • Parallel between Propertius’s Rome (The Past) and Pound’s London (The Present) • Also a thumbs down by readers

  12. Acclaimed Works • Hugh Selwyn Mauberley: • New element introduced: the persona of Hugh Selwyn Mauberley • Readers more receptive • Partially autobiographical • Expression of Pound’s WWI frustrations

  13. Pound’s Farewell • To London • To short poems • To using independent personas

  14. MOVE TO ITALY!

  15. The Cantos: Pound’s Major Work • 800 page poem • Had 117 sections • 51 years worth of work • Unfinished at his death • Pound thought that this poem was extremely unified, while readers thought the polar opposite.

  16. The Cantos: Pound’s Major Work • Complicated??? YES!!!! • Four section division: • Early Cantos • Middle Cantos • Pisan Cantos • Later Cantos

  17. Early Cantos • Theme: Renaissance • Parallel between the past (the Renaissance) and the present (a New Renaissance)

  18. Early Cantos • Focus: Culture and Artistic Material 16th century Venice Sigismundo Malatesta

  19. Middle Cantos • Themes: Good vs. Evil…Order vs. Disorder • Focus: Politics and Economics • Good vs. Bad Rulers • Good vs. Bad Banks • Belief: • Modern Banking Practices (Jews and usury)=Disorder • Confucius and Benito Mussolini= Political Order

  20. Middle Cantos • Result: Public broadcast on Rome’s radio of Anti-Semitism and critique of the U.S., Jews, and Franklin D. Roosevelt. • Consequence: Pound Arrested by U.S. for treason

  21. Imprisonment and Mental Breakdown 1945…Pound arrested for treason U.S. Military Camp in Pisa…25 days in a “Death Cell”

  22. Imprisonment and Mental Breakdown • While in St. Elizabeth’s Psychiatric Hospital in Washington, D.C. for 12 years, Pound began to work on the Pisan Cantos. • He was eventually released and returned to Italy.

  23. Pisan Cantos • Written from the Psychiatric Hospital Prison Camp on toilet paper in his cell

  24. Pisan Cantos • What he abandoned: Order and Confucian principals • What he included: Subject jumping by use of haiku-like juxtapositions • What he believed: His work was really ordered • Results: Pound’s Best Writing and a Bollingen Prize

  25. Later Cantos • Focus on order again • Realizations: • His ideals will not come to fruition in his lifetime • Admits failure in his poetry • Admits failure in his political views • Confesses disunity of The Cantos • Appeal to the reader: Go beyond Pound and find unity

  26. Pound’s Legacy • Egotistical • Controversial Views and Achievements • Poet’s Poet—Difficult to Study • Agreement on Pound’s Literary Contributions: • Strong LYRICIST • Introduced MODERNISM • Promoted IMAGISM • Influenced and Promoted Works of Many Famous Poets

  27. Bibliography Brooks, Van Wyck. Writers at Work: The Paris Review Interviews : Second Series. New York: Viking, 1965. Print. Jason, Philip K., and Frank N. Magill, eds. Critical Survey of Poetry. Second ed. Vol. 8. Pasadena, CA: Salem, 2003. Print. Litz, A. Walton., Jay Parini, and Leonhard Unger. Archibald MacLeish to George Santayana. New York, NY: Scribner, 1974. Print. Mangan, James C. Critical Survey of Poetry. Ed. Philip K. Jason and Frank N. Magill. Second ed. Vol. 5. Pasadena, CA: Salem, 2003. Print. O'Connor, William Van. Ezra Pound. Minneapolis: n.p., 1963. Print. Quinn, Mary Bernetta. Ezra Pound; an Introduction to the Poetry. New York: Columbia UP, 1972. Print.

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