Thanks to all the participants in this discussion for one of the most
stimulating "threads" in a long time. I wish I'd been around to read all of
the posts as they came in, instead of having to skim them somewhat on my
return from holiday.

I think the ant in Canto 81 is part of the menagerie of small creatures
(including mme la vespa et al) with whom Pound passed his time in the open
air at Pisa. When under attack, the ant rears up its thorax and forelegs,
thus resembling a centaur; the "dragons" are the ant's larger adversaries in
the insect world (beetles, centipedes and so on). "Centaur" and "dragon" are
primarily visual images which "scale up" the lilliputian conflict, as in one
of those natural history films of which public service broadcasters are so
fond.

Paradoxically, the effect of this scaling up is to scale down the drama of
human aspirations and disasters; we are led to understand that when viewed
on the cosmic scale our own lives are as small as the ant's life appears to
be when viewed on the human scale. Pound's lesson in humility involves
appreciating both the significance of things which we habitually regard as
insignificant (ants, wasps, etc), and the insignificance of thing we have
learnt to regard as significant (ourselves).

Though ostensibly addressed to the obscure dress-designer Paquin, no-one
supposes that Paquin is the interlocutor really intended by Pound. I think
the choice of this highly oblique procedure supports the view that the lines
involve self-reproach and are not merely another harangue against the world
at large, excluding Pound himself. Pound typically adopts oblique procedures
when criticising himself, eg by lapsing into French (j'ai eu pitie des
autres | probablement pas assez, and at moments that suited my own
convenience).

So, like Tim Romano, I'd tend not to put too much emphasis on the possible
symbolic meanings of "ant" and "centaur", interesting and thought-provoking
though these are.

Richard Edwards
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