Burt

Thanks very much.  I have a request off for information from Ekbert Faas and
will also try from Foster, if I can find an email for him.  As information
develops I will share back to you.

It begins to sound as if Duncan used and developed an idea that he got
undeveloped from Pound.  After I find out just how Duncan used the idea it
will be interesting to see if Pound ever used it in a similar fashion.

Pound writes concerning "tone leading" in the "Pitch" section of "I Gather
the Limbs of Osiris" but he writes of it in its musical context and does not
refer at all to vowels.  "Tone leading of vowels" may be part of how Pound
thought rhythm could be established in verse.  It is curious how an idea may
have remained seminal but unwritten with Pound for 30 years or so.  It would
seem to have had a rather major impact upon Duncan.

Foster on page 142 of "Understanding the Black Mountain Poets" lists several
poems by Duncan that incorporate "tone leading by vowels"

Rick Seddon
McIntosh, NM


----- Original Message -----
From: "Burt Hatlen" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Saturday, October 04, 2003 8:14 PM
Subject: Re: Pound/Duncan


> - Ezra Pound discussion list of the University of Maine
<[log in to unmask]> writes:
> >Duncan's biographer Ekbert Faas and Edward Foster in "Understanding the
Black Mountain Poets" both refer (Faas, 282 and Foster,142) to Duncan having
used Pound's "tone leading of vowels".  Foster refers back to "Literary
Essays of Ezra Pound" page
> >5.
> >
> >Can someone point out to me where Pound describes "tone leading of
vowels"?  Both Faas and Foster use precisely this phrase as if it were a
phrase of Pound's.    Pound seems to be more concerned with leading of
consonants and the effect of final
> >vowels.
>
> Somewhere around 1946, Duncan sent Pound a letter asking, "What is the
secret?" Pound sent back a postcard that read, "Follow the tone leading of
the vowels." I received this story from Duncan himself. It may also be in
writing somewhere, but I
> don't know where. Any further information would be appreciated.
>
> Burt Hatlen
>