C.Brandon Rizzo wrote:
 
>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
 
 
Is Keats now a byeword for all that is pointless and irrelevant in
literature? Without going into my particular views about Williams, which are
probably not very well-informed, I would have thought that Keats is clearly
a more "important" poet than WCW in the context of a university course
designed to give an overview of what happened in literature in the last two
centuries. Pound is obviously a different matter, although even Pound's
poetry has had (I would suggest) relatively little influence on the practice
of other poets (although there are of course many who have been inspired in
some way be his example or his criticism).
 
Has anyone other than Pound written a good poem in a manner shaped by the
Cantos?
 
 
Richard Edwards
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