Pound's Cantos - First Glance
Focusing on Cantos I - XXX
[Printed below are some initial impressions made by a close-reading of Ezra Pound’s Cantos. We have relied exclusively upon our own knowledge of culture, history, and aesthetics; intending to consult published commentary once a personal rapport with the work has been established. Our present analysis focuses on the first 30 cantos and some later ones, including a Chinese-themed canto numbered LXI. As such, this article serves as an introduction, both for ourselves and our readers, to the greatest epic poem of the 20th century.]
Ezra Pound (1885 - 1972) conveys the disintegration of the European psyche after the horrors of the First World War through an interrupted stream of utterances, many of which ought to be read as interjections into a previously-established theme. In fact, it is unclear if there ever is any predominant theme in any of the Cantos. It almost appears as if the background space, the formless chaos (which allows any subsequent presence to assert itself) is the “theme”—in other words, chaos is the white noise upon whose hissing various thoughts erect themselves only to be decimated or dashed off by others.
Most of the lines are devoid of any poetic quality and lack notable meter. Thus, each Canto has no rhythm, and is devoid of color otherwise imparted by metaphor. Allusion abounds, and the incessant irruption of Greek, Latin, French, German, Italian, and Chinese phrases would make annotation an immensely difficult task. Not only would our editor be expert in several languages, he would also need to be expert in European history, since several royal, political, heroic, and literary figures are simply dropped into various lines as poetic devices themselves…as if Pound expected readers to behold entire nations of meaning through the simple mention of any given individual.
In fact, Pound does not elaborate or contextualize—he expects things to make an impression upon the reader by their simple presence, by being—as they must’ve done in his own mind.
Part of the effect, I imagine, is to capture the chaos and confusion of being immersed in such a complex existence—no one can possibly know everything at once, so we are like soldiers navigating the trenches of meaning, unsure what ideas could kill us, which ideas could save us, not understanding the language of others, especially the language of finance, the sorcery of money, the spells of tyranny—Circe, Calypso…ah, now the Homeric allusion makes sense!
The Cantos were written across a period spanning nearly 40 years—Pound sustains several leitmotifs across decades, across shifting political landscapes, across death, destruction, and usury. At one time we’re in the Renaissance with the Borgias, at another among Jewish conspirators, and back to “poor old Homer, blind blind as a bat” (Canto II).
A ship begins the journey chronicled in The Odyssey, a ship carries away, but what is being carried away?—
“Eleanor (she spoiled in a British climate)” (Canto VII)
“And then went down to the ship,
Set keel to breakers, forth on the godly sea, and
We set up mast and sail on that swart ship,
Bore sheep abroad her, and our bodies also
Heavy with weeping, and winds from sternward
Bore us out onward with bellying canvas,
Circe’s this craft, the trim-coifed goddess.” (Canto I)
A ship carries the spoils of war and the lust of warring men.
Men also toil, and we must often hear about it in a very detached, almost uncaring, manner (like men chatting in a pub or tavern):
“An’ that man sweat blood
To put through that railway,
And what he ever got out of it?” (Canto XXII)
And then another man tells his story:
“And Fletcher was 19 when he went to it,
And his major went mad in the control pit,
About midnight, and started throwing the ‘phone about—
[…] And Ernie Hemingway went to it,
Too much in a hurry,
And they buried him for four days.” (Canto XVI)
Later Cantos, especially those numbered XXXI – XLI, are more abstract, more political. Some brief observations of a poetic quality may be added thereto, in keeping with the tone of Pound’s original vision:
Canto XXXIV – oil, cattle, kings and queens—rationale of Realpolitik…all money is blood money
Canto XXXV – cowardice, hypocrisy, shitting-fear of war-shocked mind
Canto XXXVI – “I have no will to try proof-bringing”, in other words, Don’t ask me to prove it, I just know something is wrong—Pound was blackpilled! The ultimate fact-checker.
Below, we offer an example of what a detailed commentary would resemble, having selected Canto LXI for the purpose.
The canto begins:
“Yong Tching
his fourth son, to honour his forebears
and spirits of fields
of earth
heaven
utility public
sought good of the people active, absolute, loved”
In this case some lines must be reordered so as to form a sentence bearing the intended meaning, including words that are only implied: Yong Tching—to honour his forebears—(conceived) his fourth son. [parallel to “forebears” are the spirits of earth for the prosperity of crops or “fields”].
“of earth/heaven” may refer to two Chinese hexagrams from the I Ching (or Book of Changes). This book has been popularized as a form of divination, but like the Western Tarot deck, contains cosmic wisdom. While we may consider the hexagram 12 “Heaven above, earth below” as well as its inversion, it is the former that best fits the overall theme of the canto. It translates as “hindrance” although generally it symbolizes the cosmic polarity of fortune and misfortune and the cycles of ascent and decline suffered by empires, rulers, and peoples. As the theme is authority and rulership (Pound here, like Herodotus, is writing his own histories), we are satisfied with interpreting the lines “of earth/heaven” in such manner.
“Heaven has scattered riches and poverty
but to profit on other men’s loss is no better than banditry
in momentum of avarice, no longer steers his own course” (Canto LXI)
There are moments throughout Pound’s work where imitation of past authors reveals his intention to allude to similar ideas (in this case, to Herodotus):
“Died 1735 at 58
in the 13th year of his reign” (Canto LXI)