On Wed, 10 Jun 1998, Tom McKeown wrote:
 
(snip)
> That is, he EARNED his right to experiment radically by first
> experimenting seriously and at length with most conventional forms.
> This means that he didn't stumble into the form of the Cantos because he
> was incompetent with regular metre, but because he'd gone beyond it.
 
Well, that's arguable. In April 1915, he submitted "L'Homme Moyen Sensuel"
to _The Smart Set_, and the accompanying letter indicated he was planning
on using that form for a yet-unnamed long poem. "L'Homme's" meter
is pretty incompetent -- the whole thing is a dismal imitation of Byron --
and it's hard to believe that Pound didn't have that in mind when he
started what would be the _Cantos_ a few months later.
 
Bill Freind