Hello all,

With regard to EP in the introductory poetry classroom: Students (maybe just
mine?) have trouble with the Modernists generally, and Pound is definitely no
exception.  After trying to make Eliot and Yeats comprehensible to
undergraduates, I get to EP.  Having made some aborted attempts to explain the
first few Cantos, I have settled on some of the traditional 'this is an
imagist poem' examples, and the Li Po translations.  The latter, for some
reason I cannot identify, seem the most popular and accessible.  I think the
problem with the other material is simply one of time--to teach Pound's
*poetry*, one needs to teach a lot of *Pound*, and that means teaching a bit
of eveything.  There simply is not time in an introductory class.  Despite the
problems, I think most of my students end the semester with some idea of EP's
importance to poetic history in general, and several do choose to write (often
rather poor, if well-received and enthusiastically written) papers on EP.
Have others had similar experiences?  Any advice on teaching EP to those who
are novices with Pound and poetry in general?

On another note: Does anyone know of any extended considerations of the
Pound-Mencken connection?  It strikes me as odd that this has not been
thoroughly examined, given the length of their correspondence and the fairly
positive comments from Pound on Mencken.  But I have not seen any sources that
deal with the relationship in detail.  What am I missing?  Just casting about
blindly for dissertation topics ...

Happy holidays,
Chris Coffman