Dan,
I'm firmly in the camp that considers this section of the poem to be a kind
of self-chastisement, yet with the self-appraisal being not entirely
negative but counter-balanced with a sense that the intention and the
artistic endeavor have been  worthy.


        To have done instead of not doing ...
        To have with decency knocked ...
        To have gathered from the air a live tradition

These, it is stated, are "not vanity".

Isn't it fair to say that the implied addressee somehow considers
himself/themselves to be an artist, an actor in the sphere of aesthetic
invention?  The poet reminds whoever it is he is addressing (himself, I
think):

        Learn of the green world what can be thy place
        In scaled invention or true artistry...

When has the army ever been interested in _true artistry_?  And how does one
fit "Paquin" (the Parisian dress designer) into the ant-as-myrmidon reading?

        Pull down thy vanity,
                                         Paquin pull down!
        The green casque has outdone your elegance.

When has the army ever been interested in the concept of _elegance_ except
perhaps with regard to the efficient lethalness of a new weapon?

I would draw attention again to the notion of _scale_ that informs this
passage, which is echoed in the phrase "_scaled_ invention".
Ant...centaur...dragon.  This is all consonant with the theme of personal
Vanity and perspective--Gulliver among the Lilliputians finding out that he
is not at all as big as he thinks himself to be.

Tim Romano


----- Original Message -----
From: "Daniel Pearlman" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Tuesday, August 22, 2000 2:08 PM
Subject: Re: The ant's a centaur in his dragon world


> Those Trachis lines would seem to support my suggestion that
> the ant/centaur of 81 is more likely to refer to the US army
> than to Pound himself.
>
> ==Dan
>
> At 08:33 AM 8/22/00 -0400, you wrote:
> >Dan Pearlman recently pulled up from his files an exchange we had here
last
> >year, regarding this line from Canto 81:
> >
> >    The ant's a centaur in his dragon world...
> >
> >In that exchange, I took issue with Michael Coyle's characterization of
the
> >man-beast as "lascivious" and "randy".  I described the centaur as
> >"prodigious". In re-reading Women of Trachis, I've found some lines that
> >shed some more light on Pound's exemplum; here, Herakles is speaking:
> >
> >... and those unsociable bardots, half man and half horse,
> >the whole gang of them all together
> >ARROGANT, LAWLESS, SURPASSING STRONG...
> >
> >[ emphasis mine]
> >
> >
> >Tim Romano
> >
> HOME:
> Dan Pearlman
> 102 Blackstone Blvd. #5
> Providence, RI 02906
> Tel.: 401 453-3027
> email: [log in to unmask]
> Fax: (253) 681-8518
> http://www.uri.edu/artsci/english/clf/
>
> OFFICE
> Department of English
> University of Rhode Island
> Kingston, RI 02881
> Tel.: 401 874-4659
>
>