I'll second Dan's comment re Stephen's suggestion.

Do we have _two_ "green worlds" here -- the green world of grass-blades,
pine trees, insects, pools, streams, the sea, emerald eyes, and the
paraclete, versus the US Army's "olive drab"?  The following lines would
then be caustic and full of  bitterness and sarcasm:

    Pull down the vanity,
                                            Paquin pull down!
    The green casque has outdone your elegance.

I must admit, my reading of this passage has been colored by the tone of
voice in which Pound recites these lines, in which the sarcastic tone,
characteristic of other ironic/satiric passages in the Cantos, is entirely
absent, or at least my ear is not picking it up here.

Tim Romano


> Very interesting suggestion by Stephen Adams (below).
> Have we forgotten that casque means literally and primarily
> a helmet?  In which case, "The green casque has outdone your elegance"
> is a line filled with bitter irony.  The negative Order represented
> by the army's kind of fashion statement and the army's typically
> rigid, mechanical, insect-like movements (marching, saluting, etc.)
> have for the moment stolen the show.
>
> ==Dan
>
> >>         Pull down thy vanity,
> >>                                          Paquin pull down!
> >>         The green casque has outdone your elegance.
> >>
> >> When has the army ever been interested in the concept of _elegance_
except
> >> perhaps with regard to the efficient lethalness of a new weapon?
> >
> >Could "the green casque" be a GI's helmet?
> >
> >--
> >Stephen Adams
> >Department of English
> >University of Western Ontario
> >London, Canada  N6A-3K7
> >(519)-434-7519
> >
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