The first appearance in Canto 40 of the line "out of which thngs seeking
an exit" seems to simply refer to Pound's desire to abandon this current
strain of the Canto. (Exit as in an awkward social situation drawing on
the theatre usage.)The list above is a pretty weak menagerie from a
poetic standpoint. But also it is an extremely anemic sin to saddle
Morgan and the other villains (actually murderers)of the Canto with. I
mean consipcuous consumption for J. Pierpont Morgan, please. Perhaps we
need Dante to declare the appropriate bolgia.
The second use of the same line seems to refer, as J. Morse implies, to
the neutral tone with which Pound renders the Hanno section. After being
seduced by the story and its musical potential, Pound seems to run
aground upon the narrative equivalent of the earlier failed list. The
quick, Vaughan Williams like ascent of the last five lines shows just
how in a hurry Pound is to get out of the Canto. Four short phrases
rendering an aural ascent through a physical descent into the actual
castle of Karx, wherein mingles the mind and its mineral symbol. And how
mysterious is this mind--this Nous? It allows for the hanging of the
women's pelts next to the King's mappemunde. A scene of conquest for
certain but certainly not one to arouse thoughts of the 'ineffable' in
the reader. So if Hanno has grown anxious for the "imperial calm" after
his exertions, the tone of the earlier part of the section would
indicate frustration and a possible sense of failure with the substance
of his conquest. Likewise Pound has largely failed in the Canto and
seeks similar sanctuary thus the "exit". This is further signified by
Pound's diminishing the mappemunde (my interjection) by placing a
woman's skin next to it. Maybe, a prized trophy in the court of Karx.
but certainly one desiged to evoke revulsion and saddle Hanno with a
certain cowardice in the mind of the modern reader. Anyway, the final
five lines are beautiful with their iteration of vectoring "to"'s
rhyming with the directionless "Nous." And the back strobing rhythms of
the last two lines. Wow! Carlo Parcelli
And do these two 'parts' of the Canto connect in any other more profound
way? And as a working man myself, I'm curious what is Pound's attitude
tradesman in this first part of the Canto? Carlo Parcelli


Tim Romano wrote:
>
> How, then, do you interpret the line in its first appearance in the poem?
> It's used twice. The poem juxtaposes  two (very different?) imperialist
> acts:
>
> IN THE NAME OF GOD THE MOST GLORIOUS MR. D'ARCY
> is permitted for 50 years to dig up the subsoil of Persia
>
> ...
>
> PLEASING TO CARTHEGINIANS: HANNO
> that he ply beyond pillars of Herakles
> 60 ships of armada to lay out Phoenician cities
>
> The first seems to be simple exploitation of natural resource. The latter
> seems to be a founding, a spreading of civilization. To lump them together
> seems to overlook the distinction Pound was trying to make.
>
> Carrol Cox's "imperial clutter" might be applied to the "seignieurial
> splendours" (read vain trappings ) of the first example of
> empire("haberdashery, clocks, ormoulu, brocatelli, tapestries, unreadable
> volumes bound in tree-calf, half-morocco, morocco, tooled edges, green
> ribbons, flaps, farthingales fichus, cuties, shorties, pinkies et
> etera")  ---but desire to escape that clutter of vanities is not a
> satisfactory explanation of the force of the line  "Out of which things
> seeking an exit" the second time it is used in the canto.  And the first use
> of the line makes me question your interpretation that it refers to an
> "aesthetic moment". "Exit" is too negative in its connotations, I think, for
> it to convey such a meaning.
>
> Tim Romano
>
> En Lin Wei wrote:
>
> > Tim Romano asks about the phrase "seeking an exit."
> >
> > I think Pound is trying to accomplish here what Schiller described as
> > creating the aesthetic moment which foreshadows a future utopia.  We move
> > from the political act of extending empire, to the "stratosphere" to a
> state
> > of mind, which nonetheless has a political dimension "the imperial calm,"
> > and we end in contemplation of the divine mind, NOUS.
> >
> > The difference between Pound and Schiller in this instance, is that
> Pound's
> > utopia, as is frequently the case, requires acts of imperialistic conquest
> > and the slaughter of "barbarians" to be achieved. He often expresses
> > approval of such acts performed in the past and the present.
> >