The Cantos of Ezra Pound

I think the honorific came from Eliot who , when I was in college, was just coming to be comprehensible for the general reader. All that means is an artist sees what's going on while it is going but we muddle along and catch on about 30 or 40 years later. Some of Pound's poetry is beautiful and accessible---River Merchant's Wife and his Sestina--for two. But the Cantos are still a tough read for any reader. I think that the Cantos are like Finnegan's Wake --something to be read with helps and probably studied in a grad seminar. Finnegan can be undertaken thanks to the Skeleton Key.. For the Cantos, I relied on Cookson's Guide. I don't know if there are seminars out there on the Cantos or the Wake; so I guess we can muddle on and hope the next generation catches up.

Look, The Cantos is incredibly difficult. If you don't like difficult literature, it won't be for you. That doesn't mean it's a "failed work" or that because it includes other languages than English it's not English literature. What can be said, however, is that Pound does a remarkable job of letting The Cantos translate themselves. That is, what is written in Chinese or Italian in one canto may often be restated in English twenty or thirty cantos away. If the work is read as a whole it coheres. Now, this coherence requires the reader to keep a great amount of information in his head and, indeed, The Cantos would benefit greatly from an annotated, cross-referenced edition, but if you are willing to put in the work, you will be richly rewarded.

This is a well constructed book of reasonable size and as such offers a good reading copy of The Cantos. The typeface is sensible and clear. It is a copy that can be stuck in a suitcase or satchel. Since it is hardbound, it is not lightweight or really intended for travel, but it is not a lavish collector's volume, so if it gets knocked about, so what? I'm not going to comment on Pound's Cantos, his poetry generally or his role in 20th century literature. If you want an expert opinion, find yourself a copy of Hugh Kenner's The Pound Era. Pound himself was a complex man who left complex tracks. The Cantos certainly remain worth reading (IMHO, they are aging well, and reading them against the backdrop of the current financial nonsense is entertaining, but perhaps I entertain easily?).

I understand that EP did not like usury. Beyond that, I'm not really sure what he's on about. I dream of a thoroughly annotated Cantos coming out some day, but until that happens, this volume is your best choice.

Here---ta-da!---in all its profound mastery of idiom, phrasing, imagery, history, rant, rancid anti-semitism, beauty of line, and well seasoned with tag lines in Latin, Greek, French, Italian, German, and Chinese ideograms is the magnum opus of 20th century modernist poetry. Even the achingly beauty of Pound's incoherence at the end will stir the heart. He couldn't find it in himself how to end this rambling, chaotic, crass, gorgeous, limpid, challenging boa constrictor of a poem that contains everything Pound read and believed, even his "wrecks and errors." He tells us, "What thou loves best is thy true heritage." Eventually we get his message after this survey of history: "To be men, not destroyers." A monumental poem.

I ordered the Cantos of Ezra Pound. It arrived very-well-packaged with a few extra little things to read. It was great fun to open. I will buy from here again if the opportunity is given.

Book arrived as advertised: brand new. And I had the joy of rereading Pound's Cantos cover to cover again. Only this time, with the benefit of having learned Spanish, French, Latin, Greek and Italian. A seminal revelation in Western culture, breathtaking poetry, amusing insights into the myriad figures of 20th century art -- from Beardsley and Whistler to Yeats and Eliot. You cannot understand the events in Western art and civilization without reading this book thoroughly.

There is really not much that can be said about the Cantos that has already been said, whether deserved or not.This edition includes so cantos an fragments which have not been in print and the book itself is model of printing which makes the experience more endearing.

This barely legible (on its own - to be read with Terrell's "Companion to the Cantos of Ezra Pound") text is to be heard, read, seen, spoken aloud. It is a monument of poetry, a guide for later poets and also a link with the rest of humanity's literary history, encompassing literature from Homer to Dante and more modern art. Though reading The Cantos will take a lifetime, it is incomparable experience to embark on such a quest, because of the breadth of references - economics, politics, history, philosophy, art etc. - it alludes to, paraphrases, or rewrites.

Perfect! Beautiful book enclosing beautiful treasures!

How can you be critical about an opus which was so many decades in the writing and whose themes and methods changed between the slabs which were published piece by piece? Starting in the middle of Homer's Odssey and moving through Ovidian metamorphosis through several themes to the Russian Revolution, dropping in at the Italian Quattracento (and Lucrezia Borgia - `Madame Matter') as well as on his old pal Baldy Bacon en route (not to mention the Sigismondo cantos). He even brings in his granddad who `sweat blood' put to put that railroad... We follow the chapters on Jefferson `Nuovo Mundo' and even the Adams cantos put side by side with the Chinese history cantos. On the down side we read the fascism of the Italian Cantos, with a skull in a North African desert crying `Alamein! We will return!', and old Adolf `furious from perception'. On the other hand, we read the quiet reflections from Piza prisoner camp, follow American history intermingled with the Shu King, Confucius with modern life; and after the `rock drill', the 'thrones' showing flashes of saintly acts (eg del Mar)with flashes of the inferno. Finally, sad fragments from his depressed reflections in later life, the No-Khi wind ceremony. What can we make of this jumble of archaic snatchings and even hieroglyphics? Pound's need to change society, to battle against usury and to take example from those who lived the right way - Confucius, the Byzantines and the Sacred Edict of K'ung Hui. And to change ourselves. `Pull down thy vanity' is not the only beautiful introspective line in this maze of quotations. And we can watch the transformations take place in his `ideogram' method, where fragments are welded together in snatches to give an impression; just as Chinese characters are composed of several elements which add up to the meaning. For, obscure and complex as the Cantos are, they are undoubtedly a labour of love and an attempt to show society where it is going wrong. They are many beautiful passages in the text, and I suggest the reader wander through this book and appreciate them in their rightful place - the seven lakes canto, for example, and the canto on `lynxes', to mention but two. We can learn a lot from Pound and enjoy what he wrote, but we must make the effort. There is so much that is of great value in this huge work - it really is a modern masterpiece.

O livro chegou na data certa e em bom estado. Levando em conta que é um livro importado, ótimo. Quanto ao conteúdo... é um leitura essencial para quem quer entender a poesia do século XXI, mas o livro não conta com nenhum apoio para o leitor não-preparado. Recomendo um Companion.

Edición clásica en inglés de los famosos Cantos de Pound en tapa blanda y por la editorial tradicional y más recomendable para esta obra.