While the allusions do become more insistent later in the poem, they really
start with the Hell Cantos (XIV-XV), which were very contemporary and
entirely political. Virtually all of the elided names in both are
recoverable.

yrs., Matt

At 04:41 PM 10/12/03 -0400, you wrote:
>You're quite right, Tim.  And in EP's own early tripartite scheme for the
>Cantos,
>passing events were one of the constituents.  Allusions to current events
>become
>more insistent in the middle Cantos, however--post #30, as he became more
>politically engaged.
>
>I wonder if Canto 2's Bacchus comes more out of Pound's vision of a virile
>Christ,
>as in "Ballad of the Goodly Fere," rather than in response to Prohibition.
>
>==Dan
>
>
>At 12:49 PM 10/12/2003 -0700, you wrote:
>>Daniel Pearlman wrote:
>>
>>>I'd guess that the best poets don't concern themselves much with
>>>alluding to current events in their poetry.
>>
>>Yeats did, see "Nineteen Hundred and Nineteen".  Derek Walcott does in
>>"Omeros".  Vikram Seth wrote a highly-contemporary Eighties novel in
>>verse, "The Golden Gate".  -Tim
>
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