> > The beauty of the Cantos is that the poet never lets you forget that
>there
> > is a real man there living through all the shit. "Without character you
>will
> > not be able to play on this instrument." Borders poets are a dime a
>dozen.
> >
> >
>
>That expensive?
>
>joe...

If i seem to be being facetious, I'm not, but what do you mean by borders
poets? Do you mean the border poets of 18th century or is it as I suspect
something to do with the chain borders? we have them in britain but they
don't feature poetry readings very often.

Anyway, regardless of that rather minor point, I think saying that pound
"never lets you forget" is an exagerration; there are long stretches of the
work that are just plain boring, during which you're not really aware of a
controlling hand that actually knows where it's going, and i think several
parts that without the likes of Terrell and Stock to elucidate would in fact
not give any hint of the poet working outside of the text. This is what I
was trying to get at with an earlier mention of the Pisan Cantos, the fact
that the structure of the cantos at this point is forced to collapse- Pound
can no longer use these long sections of documentary dross there are in the
adams cantos etc simply because he doesn't have them any more, and is forced
to fall back on the one or two books (bible, confucious, the verse
selection) he does have plus himself. Thus the poet presence is rather
forced on Pound rather than him ever consciously willing it- Ol Ez isn't in
there until he folds his blankets halfway through the pisans.

    Rich

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