Actually, considering the flames I've seen, should I say burned.  ;)
 
Hi:
 
I took a modern poetry class last semester and REALLY enjoyed it.  It was my
first look at poetry since I was forced to read Shakespeare in ninth grade --
way too dense for a walking hormone.
 
In my university class we started with Yeat's went to Eliot and finally read
Personae and The Pisa Cantos -- at the tail end of that class I signed on to
this list, realized it was over my head but when I saw that there were flames
being thrown from academics I stayed...
 
Anyway, I want to read the Cantos from beginning to end and would like some
advise on literary prerequisites to help me digest it.  On my own I started
with Homer, "The Metamorphosis", "The Aenied".  Recently I've been working
through the Greek tragedies and comedies.  I'm really surprised at how
intense, vivid, and fun these "classics" have been!
 
Didn't Pound wonder what the world would be like if we just read the
classics?  I want to read them.  Can you help me?
 
Thank you much,
 
Steven
 
PS: If anyone responds with a non English text could you also recommend a
specific translation.  I'm sorry, but Penguin's "Odyssey" was lame against
Loeb's.