This message didn't go through to all listees the first time, and I've
been advised to submit it again--Apologies to those who have already
received it:
 
 
Although I am a native Washingtonian, I was too young to have been aware
of Ezra Pound when he was accomodated at St. E.'s. But since I have made
Pound's Canto technique my major poetic focus, I subsequently met many
people who did know him. All of their reminiscences and comments to me
would support Everett Lee Lady's characterization and the material he
cites from the Carpenter and Norman bios.
But I think some of the hostility toward Pound often voiced on this list
also arises from the scholars lack of understanding of what actually is
involved in writing a Canto. Aside from the erudition which Mr. Lady
makes reference to in his piece, there is the fundamental question of
exactly what happens to the ongoing poem when it often uses as its
materials the cut and hewn thoughts of other authors. When involved in
this process repeated reconcentration upon the original material is
required. During this process nuances in the original text suggest
themselves which may support, refute, obscure, suggest other interesting
paths etc. The "Canto" deepens, broadens, abandons without the
convenience of discretion e.g. "cut in lozenges"/discrete. Then there is
the musicality of the original material. Does the author of a Canto
truncate the original text in order evoke a hidden metric or rhyme
scheme or does the author attempt to stay committed to the original
ideas as expressed by his source at the expense of music. Where's the
best compromise etc.? Of course, all of this and more alters the intent
of the author and creates the ply effect of the Cantos which in part
have earned them a reputation among the lazy as being impenetrable.
Of course, all of this starts with the texts the poet working in the
style of the Cantos chooses to incorporate, the limitations on the
number of texts the poet can read and assimilate, and many, many other
matters of poetic process and aesthetics which are involved.
My intention here is to simply to introduce into the ongoing discussion
something of the process of actually writing a "Canto" an activity which
I have devoted much of my life to.
I also feel that this lack of understanding among scholars is what leads
to misguided and ill-proportioned works such as Robert Casillo's
Geneaology of Demons and selective abominations such as the first part
of Bob Perelman's Trouble with Genius and probably just as appropriate
his nonsense on Joyce in the second part.
Scholarship and criticism have their place. Although the material for my
poem is generally borrowed from harder sources than literary
scholarship, I still read and learn from many of these texts. However,
what is repeatedly apparent is that scholars can't recreate the crucial
element of the day to day process of working in a genre especially one
as outward looking and responsive(not simply allusive)to other sources
as a Poundian Canto.
--Carlo Parcelli
Note: I do not pretend to an exhaustive elaboration of the processes
involved in the technique of the Cantos in this space. Being absorbed in
this process on a daily basis for 30 years has given me a profound
respect for its difficulties, complexities and unparalleled poetic
rewards.