Alex,
 
Perhaps one ought also to consider that so long as EP's focus
in the Cantos was social-reformist, i.e., intent on promoting
good government, his philosophical bent was toward Confucius.
In the Pisans, however, the turn is inward, toward a Paradiso
terrestre within, and the rest of the Cantos detail the poet's
journey toward (paradisal) wisdom without the literal hope,
after Muss's fall, of achievement of *social* order.  Therefore,
it seems to me, EP's latent taoist tendencies (more likely
derivative from American transcendentalism) take prominence in
his later work.  Just a thought.
 
==Dan P
 
At 10:31 AM 7/16/98 +0100, you wrote:
>But, Joe,
>
>  exactly THAT's s the point: That EP permanently condemned Taoism while
WRITING Taoism. It
>pretty clearly shows how LITTLE he really knew about tao, taoism, and all.
I seem to recall that
>one of the first - if not the first [or was that Achilles Feng?] - to
having named that "schism" was
>Hugh Kenner in the Era, pp 455 ff...
>
> Cheers,
>
> alex
>
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