It's interesting that even at the graduate level students still need to
'like' something in order to fully investigate it. Pound can be difficult to
relate to, esp. if one is unfamiliar with anything the man wrote, yet the
fact remains that anyone who wishes to seriously study 20th century poetry
must deal with Pound, and enough of him so that the scope of what EP did for
poetics is not glossed over. Such students are my peers, and I find it
irritating that most haven't bothered to read much of Williams at all, never
mind Pound. In fact, my undergraduate years were mostly spent in defense of
W.C.Williams' work. Students just didn't 'like' him--one might as well have
given us Keats to read, for the response would have been similar. I do wonder
at times WHY this is. Perhaps it's a poor generalization on my part to
insinuate that my peers, i.e., young writers/students, are a bit 'lazy' when
it comes to studying the staples of modern poetics. I attended three
universities in three states (all on the east coast) before finally settling
down and obtaining a degree, and I have to say that most are either
unfamiliar with Pound or simply don't give a hoot about him. And Williams, as
I mentioned earlier, was often a subject of indifference, if not derision.
 
--CB