>Subject: Re: Give us an interpretation of Pound's poetry

<<Yes, Wei. As you well know, I am using Pound as a source of inspiration
in my poetry. And my politics and economics at least superficially
resemble yours. >>

I have already praised your work.   I hope to study it further.  But I
wonder if you distinguish in your discussion of Pound between these two
statements:

"I am using Pound as a source of inspiration in my poetry." and "I am using
the form and method of Ezra Pound's Cantos as a source of inspiration in my
poetry" ?

<<The fact that you seamlessly associate 'inspiration'
with the datum of the Cantos speaks to your capacity to engage Pound
poetically at all.>>

You know very well that "datum" are not completely separable from the
inspirational effect.  You have said as much in a recent post.

I find it curious that I asked for an "interpretation" of Pound's work,
which deals with both the form and content of Pound's work, and you avoid
the task.  Why?



<<But that is not even the central point. One can become a better person
for reading Pound. You once asked me how this was possible. There is, of
course, the bitter lessons of a bad example of the negative elements in
Pound that until recently dominated this list to the exclusion of all
else.>>

I agree.  Then I fail to see why you object to so many aspects of my
approach.  I am enhancing appreciation for the "bitter lessons of a bad
example of the negative elements in Pound", am I not?


<<But also there is the question that arises out of reading the
Cantos, how such beauty can be attended by such squalor. >>

That to me is the essential question.  How do you respond to it, by
reference to specific passages in the poem?

<<No one's
questioning the squalor >>

Certainly many people are.   That is their privilege of course.



<< . . . though I'm suspicious of your method of
quantifying your Confucian condemnation of Pound. It smacks of a pogrom.>>

I don't know how a critique can be likened to a pogrom, unless my words
advocate, encourage, or lend support to a specific pogrom.  (As Pound's
words did).

In actual fact, I might mention that many of my distant relatives died in
what could reasonably qualified as a pogrom, and that all closest ancestors
were subject to bombings by forces dedicated to "pogromist" ideologies.
Several of my closest relatives have all fought or resisted these types of
agression, so I find the phrase "it smacks of a pogrom" odd, to say the
least.  But you do not know me personally, so I am sure you had no reason to
intend personal offence.


<<But indeed if the poem is not treated as first and foremost poetry,
then, yes, Pound, for all his greatness is under threat by a current
poetic 'community' . . . . >>

I am asking you to treat Pound's work as poetry, however you see fit . . .
just interpret it (since you disapprove of my method).

Your repost is interesting, but you will forgive me if I ask you, in
addition to saying that Pound is a great poet, to select a passage which is
great, in your view; tell why it is great, and explain its greatness in
relation to its MEANING and its FORM.

Regards,

Wei



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