Brennan:
Temper! Temper! There's more to this Pound thing than you have yet guessed.
May I recommend to you (and I did guess you were young, did I not?) a less
quick trigger and a willingness to if not learn from at least to observe
your elders for a longish while before writing your own Portrait of the
Artist as an Outraged Young Poet. And you are quite right; the thing that
counts is the poetry. View this list as a holiday from reality (reality
being the price of bread and meat), and you'll have it about right. Tom
White

> From: Brennen Lukas <[log in to unmask]>
> Reply-To: - Ezra Pound discussion list of the University of Maine
> <[log in to unmask]>
> Date: Fri, 31 Jan 2003 20:08:18 -0500
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: Pound the poet
>
> Oh, silly me. I've been reading posts for a few weeks and decided to chime
> in with some questions and ideas that came to my mind.  I suppose I didn't
> realize that is isn't really a forum for questions and ideas.  It's a place
> where self-satisfied academics can poke each other over such topics as the
> definition of 'occult.'
>
> I wanted to discuss the poetry. Not the man. Not the politics. Just the
> poetry. I'm genuinely interested. But I suppose my meager brain couldn't
> manage to communicate one idea worthy of discussion. No, I had to be beaten
> down. Shown for what I am. God forbid that a young person would try to learn
> from those who know.
>
> What surprises me most are the ad hominem attacks, right off the bat. I've
> never read Pound. I'm ignorant. I'm uneducated. I'm a fool. Only a MORON
> would conflate Ezra Pound with imagist poetry. It doesn't matter if you can
> actually understand the words, because they SOUND good. It's quite obvious,
> Mr. Brennen, why a 20th century poet would base a large portion of his
> poetic content on ancient myths. I mean, doesn't everybody?
>
> John--ahem--Ashbery. Puhlease.  His pap is stinking up the place. In fact,
> everything after WWII, let's just burn it out back. Meanwhile, let us lift
> up Ezra Pound, true modern man in all his fascist Jew-hating glory, let us
> raise his burned-out vision of civilization to the Gods and give a great
> huzzah! Didn't you know the Jews control Hollywood and keep mankind from
> enjoying the fruits of high art?
>
> Sirs I am unable to fathom the depths of your erudition. Truly, yours is the
> history of sedition.