tim, sadly, i think you are finally right about the narcissism/exhibitionism (vanity) as the pound-ian arch-trope. there is an relentlessly idiotic (original gk sense) structure which he clearly cultivated...and which is impenetrable ...a specific lack of negative capability, a middle-class merkan egoism, posing as "authenticity", the logical culmination of romanticism, which has blighted most of modernism, no? thanks, bob ----- Original Message ----- From: Tim Romano <[log in to unmask]> To: <[log in to unmask]> Sent: Friday, September 01, 2000 8:51 AM Subject: Re: More on Ants & Centaurs > Bob, > An autobiographical thread runs throughout the Cantos - beginning in Canto > 1 with the lines "Line quiet Divus. I mean that is Andreas Divus/In officina > Wecheli, 1538, out of Homer". The poet takes off his mask in these lines. > Of course, an unmasking is itself a symbolic gesture ... and so the face > behind the mask is yet another persona. Even so, "frankness" and "candor" > are ideals highly prized by Pound, even though perfect candor -- the self > unmasked -- is unattainable. This realization takes one into the world of > Action and directed will, or leaves one looking at the mirror in the mirror. > Recall Robert Graves' box-- "children, don't untie that string!". > > As the self is merely a jumble of broken mirrors, so the direction of the > will must be external in its origin. In Pound, the external direction is > twofold: the heavenly, in the form of Right Reason, and the chthonic, in the > form of the animal nature. The centaur can be read as a symbol of this dual > beast, moved by reason and passion. A beast of great learning but also of > great heart, its hooves planted firmly in the loam. This is a common > understanding of the symbolic aspects of that man-beast. Yet the symbolic > meaning seems to fall shy of the mark, in the context of the homiletic "pull > down thy vanity" passage. The symbolic meanings do not point at the Vanity > of human endeavor. > > You are right, I think, to look outside this symbolic meaning, as you have > done. The equestrian statues, man-horse units, do signify military > intelligence and bravery. Such associations work well with Dan Pearlman's > "myrmidon" reading. But it also behooves us to bring in complementary > associations from Pound's other writings of the period. In Women of Trachis, > the centaurs are called "arrogant, lawless", traits which fit in quite > tightly with the themes of Vanity and "self-mastery". > > Certainly there are elegiac aspects to the poems in the Pisan Cantos, and > Canto 81 is no exception. Europe is wreckage. And there is also "pastoral" > elements to be found in "the green world." Even political conflict is > transposed into a naturalistic key: > > hot wind came from the marshes > and death chill from the mountains > > And yet Elegy tends toward fade-out and drift-off, whereas Canto 81 ends on > an assertive even defiant note vis-a-vis the activist role the poet has > played. So I wouldn't want to put any sort of label on the poem. > > Tim