I think Richard's reading of the ant-line is excellent! I can't accept,
however, the limitation of Paquin to mere disguised self-reference.
Too much of the imagery of the whole passage confutes such a reading.
The military imagery is THERE, and Pound is certainly not reproaching
himself when referring to those "rathe to destroy."
==Dan
At 05:20 PM 09/04/2000 +0000, you wrote:
>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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