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Subject:
From:
Wayne Pounds <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
- Ezra Pound discussion list of the University of Maine <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Thu, 14 May 2009 09:22:42 +0900
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We have had some quiet days on the Poundian front of late. Here's a quiet 
question maybe someone can answer.

Among  the Rubaiyat quatrains of Canto 80, we have this one:

Tudor indeed is gone and every rose,
Blood-red, blanch-white that in the sunset glows
Cries: “Blood, Blood, Blood!” against the gothic stone
Of England, as the Howard or Boleyn knows.

Given all the blood shed by and under the Tudors, and all the family names 
involved, what had EP been reading to cause him to cite "Howard" and "Boleyn" 
as the gists to evoke the Tudors? He had no books at Pisa except Kung and that 
poetry anthology he picked up in the latrine, so he's remembering something 
he'd read--perhaps read long ago. 

The names Howard and Boleyn in the blood and sunset context suggest he's 
thinking of two of the wives of Henry VIII, Anne Boleyn and Katherine Howard, 
both beheaded. But why these two people? My guess is that he's remembering a 
historical novel by one of his friends like Maurice Hewlett who wrote in that 
genre. 

Can anyone pin this down?

Cheers--

Wayne

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