Re Black Nanny--
 
I don't recall any black nanny in Idaho--I think the reference is
figurative, as in "I was riz among niggas."     Although there was a black
cook in New York, right?
 
The point seems to be that Pound considered Black English some kind of
ur-American language.  As in "doan yu tell no one..."
 
Eliot and Stein also do this kind of thing.  Michael North's book on this
is terrific.
 
See my "ABC of Po'try," forthcoming in Paideuma.
 
Jonathan Gill
Columbia University
 
 
On Mon, 27 Sep 1999, Wayne Pounds wrote:
 
> In the Indice in 1930, in an article called "Il Mal
> Francese" (Gallup C788), Pound makes a startling
> comment in the course of describing his difficulties
> in writing Italian. "And how much have I lost in these
> very columns trying to write a language I have learned
> from reading rather than understood from the lips of
> my black nanny. The pages become too smooth, when they
> would be better served by a word that is 'pexa or
> hirsuta.'".
>
> Is he serious when he says he had a black nanny (in
> the original, nera bambinaia), or is he playing Mark
> Twain? Stock and company agree Isabella had a servant
> in Idaho, but I can't discover whether she was also a
> nurse or what her color was. Can anyone confirm or
> refute?
>
>
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