On Thu, 6 Aug 1998, Craig Hamilton wrote:
 
> On Thu, 6 Aug 1998, Arwin wrote:
>
> > However, I am amazed (not to say shocked) that none of you have recommended
> > any essay by Pound himself. This is a severe oversight, if I may say so
> > myself. It is more important to first know what a poet himself thought he
> > was doing.
>
> This sort of thinking has not been fashionable for decades in the American
> Academy. Secondary lit has become as important primary lit in English
> Departments here, if not more so.
 
There's an even better explanation: as shrewd as he often was about the
work of others, Pound is an incredibly unreliable critic of his own work.
His observations about the Cantos, for example, are all over the board and
even the section which Arwin quotes is a pretty standard defense of vers
libre.
 
Bill Freind