EPOUND-L Archives

- Ezra Pound discussion list of the University of Maine

EPOUND-L@LISTS.MAINE.EDU

Options: Use Forum View

Use Monospaced Font
Show Text Part by Default
Show All Mail Headers

Message: [<< First] [< Prev] [Next >] [Last >>]
Topic: [<< First] [< Prev] [Next >] [Last >>]
Author: [<< First] [< Prev] [Next >] [Last >>]

Print Reply
Subject:
From:
En Lin Wei <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
- Ezra Pound discussion list of the University of Maine <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Mon, 12 Jun 2000 23:02:10 PDT
Content-Type:
text/plain
Parts/Attachments:
text/plain (52 lines)
JB wrote:

>it's common knowledge -- or at least
>it used to be -- that poetry itself is the best expression of its meaning,
>not the critic's trick of paraphrasing it, of saying exactly what it has
>nevertheless never said.

Suppose I agree with you here (and I do, to some degree).  We are left with
some serious questions.

Should we simply stop talking about Pound?

Should we stop writing about Pound?

What is the point of this list?

Should no one talk about anything, since talking about life is no substitute
for life itself?

Should people stop writing poetry, because poetry itself is no substitute
for the experience which makes it possible?

-------------

Or should only certain people (who have it right) speak about Pound; while
others (who have it wrong) remain reverentially silent?

Should we state as a general rule, that any interpretation which tries to
relate Pound's poetry to anything outside the poetry (Pound's life, his
prose, his radio broadcasts, his socio-political circumstances, his
intellectual milieu) is AUTOMATICALLY wrong?

The statement "poetry itself is the best expression of its meaning" if taken
as an absolute axiom, is problematic, I think because it elevates the poem
above the reader.  This is what priests did to the Bible during the Middle
Ages, and seems an inappropriate procedure.  Does it make sense to say "The
Bible itself is the best expression of its meaning?"

While the meaning inheres partly in the object itself, it must also reside
in the subject, the history of all subjects who have encountered the work,
and written about it; in the personal opinions of the author as they relate
to topics metioned in the work; in the social, political , and economic
institutions which touch the work (directly and indirectly), and in the
institutions which may be touched by the work.  That is only a small part of
what I mean by MEANING.

Regards,

Wei
________________________________________________________________________
Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com

ATOM RSS1 RSS2