Kate:

With the two set as discussion points, e. e. cummings seems the more
mainline modern to me.  His poetry, even that of the country,  seems urban.
Frost seems throw-back pastoral; almost Georgian.  Much of Frost's Imagery,
like some of H.D., is of the countryside.  Of course as someone has said the
Pastoral is about the primitive urges of the Urban so maybe Frost is
primitive modern?  :>)  In all seriousness I would suppose that a paper
could be developed along the lines of Frost detailing, through Pastoralism,
a rejection of the decayed modern Urb.  (Maybe it has already been done)
Pound, who relished the Urb, would not probably agree but maybe Eliot would.

Marianne Moore's images (note: little "i")  of animals, she is an
objectivist like Robert Creeley not a strict Imagist, might be profitable.
You might also look at the "Amygism" of Amy Lowell, what Pound thought
Imagism gone astray,  in order to see vitiation of the idea.

Are you interested in Imagism or Vorticism?  For an excellent discussion of
the Ideogramic method, which necessarily has a lot of good info on Imagism,
see,  _Ideogram, History of a Poetic Method_ by Laszlo K. Gefin.  Pound's
work on the Fenolosa papers would probably be of interest also.

Be sure to keep your big "I" Images seperate from your little "i" images.

I don't think the ex-pat idea would work well.  William Carlos Williams and
Richard Aldington would be hard to work into such a scheme.

Rick Seddon
McIntosh, NM, USA

----- Original Message -----
From: "Kate Cone" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Wednesday, March 13, 2002 5:48 AM
Subject: Re: Imagism and Joyce


> Tim:
>
> I've been reading C's poetry and bio's for over 30 years. In fact, as a
> result of my research and inquiries to Jay Parini at Middlebury, a Frost
> scholar and biographer, I've been asked to write the Cummings article for
> the Oxford Encyclopedia of American Literature, which Parini is editing.
> (wheeee!!!)
>
> Frost I knew as all American students do -- the anthologized poems. I
loved
> the imagery, but didn't "get" how deep they were then. But one little poem
> hit me a different way:
>
> The Secret Sits
>
> We dance 'round a ring and suppose.
> The secret sits in the middle and knows.
>
> Frost
>
> ****
>
> seeker of truth
>
> follow no path
> all paths lead where
>
> truth is here
>
> Cummings
>
> ****
>
> At first I thought of this type of poem as having a Zen influence, but on
> further investigation I learned that both C and F were tremendously
> influenced by Emerson, whose essay "Circles" pretty much pegs the notion
of
> coming back: "I keep and pass and turn again." (Brahma).
>
> Anyway, the nature poetry of C and F are the most alike in that regard.
> Where Pound comes in: he was among some other influential poets met in
> England and was instrumental in getting Frost's first two books
> well-reviewed in England, essentially "making" Frost the first and perhaps
> only best-selling American poet of the 20th century. As a young poet at
> Harvard, Cummings' notebooks show a keen interest in being part of the
> imagist movement.
>
> I guess what I'm asking for are any thoughts at all about Pound's
influence
> and/or dealings with either Frost or Cummings. And with regard to Mr.
> Savage's comment about Frost's poor treatment of Pound -- if you could
> elaborate further on that/those incident/s, it would give me more
insight --
> was Frost abandoning a poet who helped  him in order to "lay low" from
> controversy? This will further my theory that Frost "invented" himself as
a
> Yankee farmer poet and didn't want to rock any boat by being involved
> (publicly) in the politics of the day. Cummings was much more "in your
> face."
>
> Thanks!
>
> Kate
>
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Tim Romano" <[log in to unmask]>
> To: <[log in to unmask]>
> Sent: Wednesday, March 13, 2002 6:15 AM
> Subject: Re: Imagism and Joyce
>
>
> > Kate,
> > What do you think their work has in common? I see no similarity, though
I
> > must admit that I don't know cummings's work inside and out.
> > Tim Romano
> >
> > Kate Cone wrote:
> >
> > >I am writing my masters thesis on how E.E. Cummings and Robert Frost's
> > >poetry are related.
> >
>