Pounding the Point Home: Ezra Pound's Historical Writing and Framing the Present

Ezra Pound is one of the most prominent figures in the Modernistic movement in poetry. His unrelenting style and “I'll-be-damned” approach to his work is uncompromising and it seems that he has no regard for the readers of his poetry. It is hard not to respect that sense of urgency and even though Pound is a controversial figure, as a declared fascist and his work for Mussolini during the second World War would open up to criticism, of some of his opinions. In 'Canto XLV', Pound is giving an account of what he perceives to be one of the great scourges of capitalism and he argues for a better system, where money does not feature as prominently. In this essay, my primary focus will not be to discuss Pound's world view, but focus on how history is distorted in his writings. I will start by underlining the main topos of the poem. Then, I will move on to the how Duccio is represented in this work. I want to investigate this reference to create a stronger understanding of why certain people have been singled out in the context of the poem and these persons are a window into understanding Pound's canon of art. Then, I will give my understanding of how Pound understands his own role in his own time, which will be the final segment of this essay.

'Canto XLV' is a free verse poem. The poem does not stand out in any stylistic manner from Pound's other works, who were mostly composed without metre to guide the reader. However, what does stand out is Pound's style that is uncompromising and unyielding. The poem is a relentless attack on usury, as we can see in the subtitle of the poem, 'With Usura' (Pound ll. 1). The Oxford English Dictionary defines usury as '[t]he fact or practice of lending money at interest; esp. in later use, the practice of charging, taking, or contracting to receive, excessive or illegal rates of interest for money on loan' and the latter part of the definition is one of the most criticised practices in capitalism (“Usury”). The reason that I have been saying that Pound is so unrelenting in his criticism of usury can be found in almost every single line of the poem. Whether it is lines like 'with usura, sin against nature' (ll. 14) or 'Usura is a murrain,' (ll. 25), we are convinced of Pound's objection to usury. It is important to notice how usury is personified by the name of Usura. The personification suggests that the concept can be demonised, the system is corrupt and everyone that enters into Usura's domain are corrupted by it.

The poem is filled with references and most of these are perosns or places that are significant to art in some way. In line 29, Duccio is said to be a result of something else than usury, like most other things in the poem (Pound). Duccio is one of the founding fathers of the Italian painting styles of the thirteenth century. His birth date is unknown but we know that he had died before 1319 and lived for the most part in Siena (Polzer 90). It is also likely that he learned his trade here. His importance to later painting is invaluable and he is one of the pioneers of the new style of renaissance painting that developed over the next three hundred years, and made Northern Italy one of the most important cultural centres in the entire late Medieval times and during the “golden age” of city states, such as Siena, Florence and Venice. An interesting aspect that concerns Pound's representation of history in 'Canto XLV' is his claim that with usury Duccio would not have been able to create his works. I have already established that Duccio was born somewhere in the middle of the thirteenth century and, as a result, he is predated by the Crusades by a sizeable amount of time. The Crusades were a time, when merchant bankers prospered and accumulated wealth in these city states, on a scale that mirrored the wealth of the Roman Empire. Lane argues that banks as institutions were commonplace in Florence and Milano, around the early fourteenth century (Lane 97). These banks started to appear with the consolidation of power that the Catholic church established in this period and the bankers would have been poor at their profession, if they did not take interest on the loans they issued to the crusading armies that travelled through the ports of northern Italy to the Holy Land (97). Therefore, we have established that banks thrived during Duccio's lifetime and his works were most likely funded by patrons, who indulged in banking and money-lending. I want to state that it is not certain, how Pound defines usury, but the practice that eventually leads to excessive interest on loans is in place, when Duccio is an apprentice in Siena. On the basis of this finding, we can discuss how Pound distorts history to suit his points and that does not seek Truth for its own sake. I have not found any sources from Pound's time that state the same point, so it is possible that these particulars of history were not known in the early twentieth century. In that span of time, our understanding of the Crusades has changed from a nationalistic endeavour to a pan-Christian effort and the result of expansionist policies by the Papal States, mired in racism and prejudice against Judaism and Islam (McKay 278). Of course, the money-lending that was performed in northern Italy in medieval times are not performed in the same manner today. The economy was far less defined and although it was controlled by centralised governments it does not resemble the behemoth that modern-day capitalism is. Therefore, it is possible that Pound only attacks the modern society and not the proto-capitalist elements that existed in Duccio's time.

Duccio's presence in Pound's poetry is not surprising, if we do consider the Italian painter as a pioneer of a new style of art. Pound would have been able to mould his own appearance, after Duccio, as an innovator and figurehead of the Modernists. His references to painters, Duccio, Angelico and Memling to name a few of the prominent painters present in the poem, poets and playwrights found throughout the poem with more or less obscure references, are in place to tell the reader that the old pioneers did not have to cope with usury as a limiting factor. One particular line stood out in the poem, his reference to 'Eleusis' (Pound ll. 46). The town is now a part of Athens and is most famous for being the birth place of Aeschylus, the first great Attic tragedy writer. Line 46 is ' They have brought whores for Eleusis' and this can be interpreted as the classics have been tainted by usury to a point where 'Corpses are set to banquet/ at behest of usura' (ll. 46-48). The taint is now all-pervasive and Pound does not mention his own works in this context. He could understand them as tainted by this societal corruption, but he could also see himself as a champion of righteousness and mark him as an equal to the greats. This comparison can then serve a purpose in making Pound stand out as an even greater pioneer that could rival the greats of classical and medieval times. 

I have attempted to give an account of Pound's use of history and how he distorts it to suit his own needs. This is not the only possible reading, but it is interesting to note how easily the reading conforms to this sort of discussion. I have argued that Pound's notion of usury is not the original notion of the word, but the modern version of the word (I use the word modern in its loosest sense, since usury has negative connotations from the 18^th century and onward (“Usury”)). I have also to some degree argued that Pound uses history and historiography in a subjective manner that places his values of the untainted society above the historical facts. Throughout this essay, I have attempted to stay as close to objective in my attempt to dissect and disseminate some of the historical inaccuracies of the poem. However, I must say that I had expected a higher level of accuracy from Pound and a less romanticised view of the past even in this pastoral-esque poem.

References

"Aeschylus". Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Encyclopædia Britannica, 2016.

Lane, Frederic Chapin and Reinhold C. Mueller. Money and banking in medieval and Renaissance Venice. American Council of Learned Societies. 1985.

Mckay, John P., Bennet D. Hill and John Buckler. A History of Western Society. 7th Edition. Boston,

MA: Houghton Mifflin. 2003.

Pound, Ezra. “Canto XLV”. The Cantos of Ezra Pound. New York, NY: New Directions, 1993.

“Usury”. Oxford English Dictionary. OED Online. Oxford University Press.

Polzer, Joseph. “Studies in Late Dugento and Early Trecento: Who Is Duccio?”. Zograf. 2005. 30.

89-110

Usurping the Classics: Citation and Storytelling in 'The Waste Land'

T.S. Eliot's 'The Waste Land' is a very hard piece of poetry to enter as a student of poetry. The many citations and references are a daunting prospect to attempt to decipher and create a coherent story from. It would require a “small library” to actually recreate the scope of reference that Eliot draws upon to create his fragmentary and dystopian 'Waste Land' (North in Eliot x). I would argue that it is not necessary to trace all of the references to their original sources, since other measures are used to tell the actual story of 'The Waste Land' and that these are completely in the vein of conventional storytelling and poetic discourse, so while the poem might require or allows for an individual interpretation of the internal story, it exists strictly inside the confines of tradition while, apparently, breaking away from it. I intend to show how it follows a classical schema for storytelling and how the different elements are arranged in a manner that actually aids the open-minded reader into a stronger understanding, while still retaining the text as the centre of attention.

Building a Narrative

The first line of 'The Waste Land' attempts to alienate the reader and the obvious reference to Chaucer's opening in 'The Canterbury Tales' are already a massive distortion. April is not bringing its shoures soote (Chaucer ll.1) in any positive manner here, but rather bringing Lilacs back from the wonderful dead land that was kept warm by Winter (Eliot ll. 1-7). From the very beginning, the reader is lead into Eliot's 'Waste Land' and the speaker does not grant any reprieve from the disheartening accounts or the repurposed quotes from a myriad of sources. The flirtation that we find between the 'Hyacinth girl' and the speaker in lines 35-41 dies off almost immediately and shows that the state of the world is truly undead and not living or dead (Eliot). Madame Sosostris is then introduced to give us a glimpse of Phlebas who will be central to the story further on in the poem (Eliot ll. 43-49). In this way, we are given a magical foreshadowing that we do not yet know how to understand, except as an emblem of water. Phlebas purpose is to give the reader an introduction in how the world is perceived by the speaker in the poem and give credence to an interpretation that water is not a bringer of life. In this part of the poem, we are introduced to the major characters of the poem and this serves as a quite conventional introduction, where the action is revealed, but we have only encountered the insurmountable obstacle that the protagonist must face.

Water Is Unlife

The imagery of 'The Waste Land' is at once confusing and coherent. The paradox seems to be a natural response, when something so bleak and sterile as the antebellum London needs to be described. The flirtation that we find between the 'Hyacinth girl' and the speaker in lines 35-41 dies off almost immediately and shows that the state of the world is, truly, undead. Water is almost omnipresent in the poem and the citation from Tristan and Isolde in line 42 where the ocean is empty and desolate makes us understand the sea as part of the waste land that is everywhere. The revelation that the waste land is all-encompassing makes for a very dark reading of the poem as the connecting element in the poem is water. If water is not a symbol of life, as it, so very clearly, is not in 'A Game of Chess', then what does it represent? I would argue that water functions as a perversion of life and is a representation of death. In 'Death by Water', we are introduced to Phlebas the drowned sailor. He has been dead for a fortnight and is not coming back. His bones have been picked clean and he has no recollection of either 'gulls, and the deep sea' (Eliot ll. 313). He was already introduced in the tarot deck but his significance was not clear then. Phlebas dies of drowning but Eliot does not let Phlebas stay dead. Instead, he passes 'the stages of his age and youth' (ll. 317) in a mockery of death and the sterility and aridness of the landscape is mirrored in the sea, since it is still 'Oed und leer' (ll. 42). This passage is part of the Grail myth and functions as a means of resurrecting the land and to bring prosperity and fertility back to the “kingdom”. The middle parts of the poem deepen and explain the plot and we can find a glimmer of hope that will set things right.

What the Thunder Actually Says

The overt images of Arthurian legend are strewn liberally across the pages with the mentions of the Fisher King and Tristan and Isolde. The reason that the Grail myth is so important in 'The Waste Land' is that it is a way out of the suffering and gives hope of redemption. I do not find that Eliot actually intends to give absolution to the society that he describes and it all boils down to a few select references given at dispersed intervals in the final lines of the poem. The normal reading of 'The Waste Land' is that the poem ends on a positive note, and there is hope for civilization even though it is doomed if we continue with Western religion and culture. The hope is found in the Upanishad or Eastern mysticism as the thunder brings the rain. However, as stated earlier I do not find that the rain is a bringer of life. In line 393-394, 'a damp gust/ Bringing rain' comes to the waste land, but the process is not one that suddenly turns the barren land into a living, breathing organism (Eliot). On the contrary, the very next line says that the 'Ganga was sunken' and that we are still waiting for the rain. Most of the other river references have been to the Thames and it is significant that Eliot turns to the Ganges instead. This shift marks the turning away from Western philology. We find a boat mentioned by the thunder in lines 418-422 and it is sailed by an expert (Eliot). The sea is described as calm, but the thunder is coming and although the sailor is proficient he is most likely entering a storm. Could this sailor be Phlebas in a period before drowning? If so, the bleakness found in 'Death by Water' is even darker than we first assumed. The very next line, the speaker is sitting on the shore and is fishing (Eliot 424). We have still not have any confirmation that life has returned and the drowned sailor is still echoing through the pages. 'Shall I at least set my lands in order?' functions as a focal point for the poem in the final lines of it, yet they also state that everything has not been set right (Eliot 425). The question mark is of utmost importance, since it only heightens the perception that the speaker has a choice in the matter, and he is capable of turning his back on civilization. The final citation that I will introduce is found in line 430, where the speaker states that 'These fragments I have shored against my ruins' (Eliot). If Eliot had intended to end the poem on an upbeat note, then it seems odd that this line is present in the poem. There is no apparent solution to the speakers situation and the very quotes from the multitude of sources have ended their life in the speaker's wasted mind and world. The implications to the storytelling are not reminiscent of tragedy or comedy, since the unfulfilled nature of my reading, leaves the speaker in his waste land, but I will argue that this very ending can be read into the fragmented nature of the poem.

Ending Civilization

Eliot follows a set schema for the storytelling in 'The Waste Land' and while it is extraordinary, it is still bound within this schema to provide a coherent story. I have attempted to highlight that 'The Burial of the Dead' works as an introduction, where the themes are presented, as well as the characters that have importance. We do not find out who the drowned Phonecian is in this part, but we recognise him, when he is reintroduced in 'Death by Water' and Phlebas serves as a reminder of how water has been perverted from our normal perception of it, as life-giving. Then, I continued with this view of how water's symbolism has been changed and showed that the thunder in 'What the Thunder Said' can be understood as an impotent hero, where the speaker is the final arbiter in how the world can be restored. I will grant that this reading does not fully account for all of the readings, where Eastern spirituality can replace Western religions, but the final quote serves to remind us that water can be fatal to a mortal and the fragments that have shored on the speaker's ruins offer little respite for the reader or the speaker.

References

Chaucer, Geoffrey. The Canterbury Tales. Internet Medieval Source Book. 1996.

Eliot, T.S. The Wasteland. Ed: Michael North. London: Norton, 2001. Print

Breaking Away from Tradition: Metrical Subversion in 'The Raven'

On the internet, there are a lot of student help pages concerning poetry and how to read it and we are often introduced to familiar concepts such as internal rhyme, metre and a wide variety of other poetic terms. When we regard the “cheatsheets” for Edgar Allan Poe's 'The Raven' most of these pages stress the structure of it, but end up accepting the fact that it is a trochaic octameter, without delving into the specifics of what that actually suggests for the reading. My reading of this poem is troubled by this acceptance, as the form and style of the poem attempts to subvert the metrics and rhythm of itself. I will present two different lines that stand in contrast with the highly stylised lines of trochaic octameter, to show how the poem's rhythm is constantly broken by the metrics of the poem.

'The Raven' can easily be described as rhythmically arranged, since it is possible to boil it down to a four-beat structure. Since 'The Raven' has become a cornerstone in almost any anthology concerning American poetry, there have been a movement towards a unified reading of the poem and the fact that it is probably the most famous poem composed in trochaic octameter, it is held as a shining beacon of this particular metre. The first line of the poem holds itself completely to this form, but already in the second line we find it straining against the confines of the chosen metre. Wikipedia has a scansion of the first stanza that I would argue is faulty for reasons that will be explained after introducing the scansion of the second line:

                                          | /  .   | /   .   .  | /           .  | /   . .    | /    .    | /    .  | /    .   | / | (Wikipedia)

                                          Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore (Poe ll. 2)

The heavy use of dactyls are not particularly problematic as many foot substitutions are allowed in different metres and I do not have a complete list of allowed substitutions in trochaic octameter, if such a list even exists. My main argument against this scansion is the manner in which of is analysed. It is almost unheard of to stress a function word and in this scansion, it seems as a particular interference with the reading. The rhythm of the reading does indeed give us the impression that of should be stressed, but the line would scan more easily if volume was a spondee and of for- would be a pyrrhic. In this way, there would not have to be stress on a function word.

The substitutions introduced in the second line are not a definite proof that the poem does not use trochaic octameter throughout, but we find that several lines have similar struggles with staying inside the metrical arrangement of the metre. I would argue that these lines are not a breach of metrics, but rather the poet remaining unrestrained by tradition and form. Instead, he is highlighting how metre can be subverted to serve a purpose of highlighting certain facts in a poem. The most obvious line to use for this is the opening line of stanza nine:

                                     | /        .   | /    .           .  | .    /   .    | /      .  | /      /   | /         .   | / . |

                                     Much I marvelled this ungainly fowl to hear discourse so plainly,

The line is extremely convoluted and the addition of a dactyl in the second foot and then the extremely rare amphibrach in the third. The stresses of the line highlight the words ungainly and fowl. These words hold semantic context to the complicated elements found in the metrics and, therefore, the metre gives an increased value to our understanding of the poem. The line is, of course, still acceptable in terms of metre, but it is an extreme example of how to use any sort of metrical line and it would most likely have been seen as a breach of “decorum” to use a line like this in most earlier poetry. The internal rhyme of the line is also off-centre as, ungainly and plainly are the rhyming constituents, but ungainly is the third foot and the rhyme should have been fowl with plainly. This non-rhyme is a pun on 'fowl-foul' and denotes that something has gone awry for our speaker. These subtle elements are what sets 'The Raven' apart from other poems of its age and these parcels of information that can be gleaned from paying attentive detail to the construction of the poem accentuate more diversity and poignancy in his poetic framing.

I have not shown that 'The Raven' is unmetrical, but I have attempted to highlight how subversive the use of metre has become by this point in time and I do believe that there is something uniquely rebellious and American in Poe's poetry. Poe adherence to metrics seems to be founded in something other than tradition, as we can find inventiveness in his attempt to break it away from a simple reading. His command of metrical poetry is not used to solidify form but rather to blur the meaning and the strict adherence in most of the lines of this poem suggests the very eeriness that the poet intended.

References

Poe, Edgar Allan. 'The Raven'. The Complete Tales and Poems of Edgar Allan Poe. New York:

Barnes and Noble. 2006.

'Trochaic Octameter'. Wikipedia.