>Subject: Re: Give us an interpretation of Pound's poetry <<Yes, Wei. As you well know, I am using Pound as a source of inspiration in my poetry. And my politics and economics at least superficially resemble yours. >> I have already praised your work. I hope to study it further. But I wonder if you distinguish in your discussion of Pound between these two statements: "I am using Pound as a source of inspiration in my poetry." and "I am using the form and method of Ezra Pound's Cantos as a source of inspiration in my poetry" ? <<The fact that you seamlessly associate 'inspiration' with the datum of the Cantos speaks to your capacity to engage Pound poetically at all.>> You know very well that "datum" are not completely separable from the inspirational effect. You have said as much in a recent post. I find it curious that I asked for an "interpretation" of Pound's work, which deals with both the form and content of Pound's work, and you avoid the task. Why? <<But that is not even the central point. One can become a better person for reading Pound. You once asked me how this was possible. There is, of course, the bitter lessons of a bad example of the negative elements in Pound that until recently dominated this list to the exclusion of all else.>> I agree. Then I fail to see why you object to so many aspects of my approach. I am enhancing appreciation for the "bitter lessons of a bad example of the negative elements in Pound", am I not? <<But also there is the question that arises out of reading the Cantos, how such beauty can be attended by such squalor. >> That to me is the essential question. How do you respond to it, by reference to specific passages in the poem? <<No one's questioning the squalor >> Certainly many people are. That is their privilege of course. << . . . though I'm suspicious of your method of quantifying your Confucian condemnation of Pound. It smacks of a pogrom.>> I don't know how a critique can be likened to a pogrom, unless my words advocate, encourage, or lend support to a specific pogrom. (As Pound's words did). In actual fact, I might mention that many of my distant relatives died in what could reasonably qualified as a pogrom, and that all closest ancestors were subject to bombings by forces dedicated to "pogromist" ideologies. Several of my closest relatives have all fought or resisted these types of agression, so I find the phrase "it smacks of a pogrom" odd, to say the least. But you do not know me personally, so I am sure you had no reason to intend personal offence. <<But indeed if the poem is not treated as first and foremost poetry, then, yes, Pound, for all his greatness is under threat by a current poetic 'community' . . . . >> I am asking you to treat Pound's work as poetry, however you see fit . . . just interpret it (since you disapprove of my method). Your repost is interesting, but you will forgive me if I ask you, in addition to saying that Pound is a great poet, to select a passage which is great, in your view; tell why it is great, and explain its greatness in relation to its MEANING and its FORM. Regards, Wei ________________________________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com