At 02:27 AM 11/16/99 EST, Garrick Davis wrote:
 
>    Perhaps our scholars (including some on this listserver) should ask
>themselves what any further elucidation of Pound's political/moral/social
>sympathies will contribute to the understanding of his poetry.
 
One possible answer can be found in the work of Robert Casillo, who does a
pretty impressive job of using politics and biography to help us read
Pound's language.
 
Finally, though, I suppose the only reply to Mr. Davis's unexceptionable
plea for reading the poetry is that old cliche, "We are all socialists
now." Yes, George Saintsbury was a great connoisseur, if not exactly a
great critic. But sixty years or so after George Orwell pointed out the
critical implications of Saintsbury's almost unbelievably reactionary
politics, it's a little late to call for a pure and disinterested
criticism. Try reading one of Paul Elmer More's delicate essays in support
of independent incomes for essayists and you'll see what I mean. It can't
be done now without laughing. And Pound, of all poets, demands to be read
politically.
 
Jonathan Morse