tim,
     yes, the baucis & philemon story is an objective correlative
...the speaker, the olympian,
having been accorded the great gift of the ironic perception of the
magnanimity of the-little-ones
(correlatively, the mean-ness of the great);
in gratitude for which he immortalizes their beauties in poetry.
...this is the lyrical mode, the "mark but the lillies of the field," no?

from whence i guess you could say he's working
out the xian archetype...
...and surely his bio with all the cornball romances
is  preposterous enuf for a quixote (and indeed,
his political-econ fits here, no?)

...but  did he take this to his heart's hearth tropologically?
does the poem evoke/invoke the spirit of jesus cum enuhim?
step into that archetype, that cosmos of meaning?

maybe you got sumpin here...
and, of course, jesus was the last
of the greek (i.e. "pagan", as you'd have it)
translated semitic deities.
so...the gospel according to ep, eh?
ok, very nice

bob

----- Original Message -----
From: Tim Romano <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Thursday, June 15, 2000 1:56 PM
Subject: Re: Pound myth and religion


> I prefer to state this approximate truth in another way ;-)  Namely, that
> Pound has begun a search for corroborating  expressions of the liminal
> experience alluded to in The Tree, and a language with which to describe
> that experience.  The poems in PERSONAE are the record of the poet's
> embarking upon this exploration to find his sincere voice and a unifying
> mythos. What Pound discovers is not one voice, nor one myth, but many
voices
> and multiple myths, each facet reflecting however the same "eternal states
> of mind".

> > the arrival of the lyrical
>
> Yes, this experience does eventually take Pound to Cavalcanti. But the
> subjects of the lyricism are psyche and knowing, archetype and the high
> dream; it is not a simple unselfconscious lyricism.
>
> > ...the heightened sense (wonderfull-ness) of the simple,
> > unmediated, sensual moments
>
> Here, I must differ rather strongly.  The poet's day is lit by a light the
> quality of which he has never seen before.  The _experience_ alluded to in
> The Tree is straight out of Ovid.  I don't mean merely that the language
or
> themes are cribbed from Ovid, but that  this is a new and strange mode of
> awareness for the poet. He hasn't merely got himself a new attitude; his
> senses now add up to more than 5. He has "stepped into the myth", stepped,
> as in the Cocteau film, through the mirror into the underworld.
>
> > he's not a poet of the grande narrative...myth, archetype, allegory
>
> There are two assertions here. Grande narrative (as in cohesive sequential
> story without narrative lacunae, that adheres to the rules of syntax so
> firmly one could drive a bullet-train upon its rails) -- you've got a
point
> there. But NOT A POET OF MYTH, ARCHETYPE, ALLEGORY ?????
>
> Perhaps you are thinking of Ezra Pound the monetary theorist?
> Tim