tim, has it been suggested c.71 be read as a modernist pastoral elegy? mourning the death of a geist ...and perhaps the poet en-fleshing it...himself, if you want; but, rather a conventional structure, than biographical? also re the centaur metafor: what about the equestrian statue image, gatamelatta, or marcus aurelius, or st geo? conventional western image of "courage", "order"...dragon-slayer? and of course bonaparte,... & mussolini affected this, and finally got pulled down of their high-horses, prodigious vanities. bob ----- Original Message ----- From: Tim Romano <[log in to unmask]> To: <[log in to unmask]> Sent: Thursday, August 31, 2000 9:18 AM Subject: Re: More on Ants & Centaurs > Unlike Leon, who reads the passage as Pound criticizing others who don't > know their "asses from their elbows", I read this passage as a > self-assessment, half apology, half apologia. On what grounds? > > 1. > As a lone ant from a broken ant-hill > from the wreckage of Europe, ego scriptor. (C76) > > > 2. "master thyself" -- the central idea of this passage ... the self is a > dual nature-- the master-self and the unruly-self. The self who sees with > right reason and the self that cannot see through Vanity . > > This idea is reinforced by the other symbols of duality in the passage, most > notably, the magpie, "half black half white". We saw the same idea in action > in "Dr. Williams' Position", by the way: > > "He was able to observe national phenomena without > necessity for constant vigilance over himself, there was no instinctive > fear that if he forgot himself he might be like some really unpleasant > Ralph Waldo..." > > 3. The poet summons up the shades of Lawes and Jenkyns; they are his > judges, and ask him: > > Hast 'ou fashioned so airy a mood > To draw up leaf from root > Hast 'ou found a cloud so light > As seemed neither mist nor shade? > > > 4. Then "resolve me". Logopeia here draws attention to the self-duality > again. See 2 above. > > 5. The passage is homiletic in tone. The theme of the homily: "The ant's a > centaur in his dragon world." > The minister is not without guilt...and yet it is his prerogative to throw > stones...as long as some of them fall on his own head. "Vanity" as Leon > rightly points out, is to be understood in the context of western homiletic > tradition. In its broadest meaning, Vanity is the belief that Man can do or > create anything which endures or which has meaning that can stand the test > of Time, arrogant anthropocentrism: > > ...... it is not man > Made courage, or made order, or made grace. > > Only the wider perspective saves man from such vanity. The ant's a centaur > only in "HIS" dragon world... that is, only from his own point of view. A > wider view shows it to be a rather piddling small creature. And yet Man is > endowed with Will and Intelligence and has therefore an obligation to Act in > spite of his puniness in the scope of creation: > > "But to have done instead of not doing > this is not vanity" > > Hamlet's question, resolved. "Whether 'tis nobler..." > > > Tim Romano