steven,
     as with eliot, lotsa that high-brow  stuff
is affectation...what's expected of poets n'all dat,
so's to be vendable to mid-brows
 
the cantos is a loose running dialectic on self, community,
times, art, history...nearest antecedent,
not dante, but, byron's donjuan.
 
bob
 
 
-----Original Message-----
From: Steven Santos <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask] <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Wednesday, November 17, 1999 7:53 AM
Subject: Looking to get Pounded...
 
 
>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.