On Wed, 28 Jan 1998 13:34:23 EST wrote...
>
 
Dropping obscure references in letters to Borah, or referring to names and
places by their alternative or more esoteric names is a habit Pound picks up,
or at least finds modelled in Callimachus, Alexandrian poet who was the hero of
the 1st centry B.C. Roman elegists such as Propertius (Shades of Callimachus).
Callimachus was the librarian in the Alexandrian library, and because he had so
many reference texts available, and because as a poet and a scholar he scorned
the unlearned audience, he would refer to Cybele as the 'queen of Dindymus,'
for example, for a place where she was famous. Doing so for Callimachus, and
for Pound, kept the bar high--here again is the reason for Pound's small
showing, even at the university.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Thanks for the responses thus far.  I tried to provide context when possible, b
>ut often Pound (as many editors and readers of his letters know) just sort of
p
>lops names in his letters, so they really don't have a context.  Except, of
cou
>rse, there are the larger contexts: he's writing to Borah to convince him to
be
>come an advocate of Social Credit, to convince him that Mussolini was right in
>invading Abyssinia, and to convince him to run for President.  Anyway, help
whe
>re you can, and I'll take it from there.
>
>Sarah H.
>p.s.: For those of you interested in the tendency of Pound to make obscure
refe
>rences, Barry Ahearn addresses that quite well in his Intro to the
Pound/Cummin
>gs letters.
>
>
 
Robert E. Kibler
Department of English
University of Minnesota
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