Without question Pound is difficult. So is Dante, whom I also teach. I just finished another Dante seminar last semester (and I taught the same material to an undergraduate class as well). I told both groups that I had first read Dante thirty years ago, and felt that I was about half way towards understanding him. The graduate seminar went very well. I had sixteen bright, engaged students, who lamented the weekly quiz, but whose questions and discussion challenged me. The undergraduate students also lamented the weekly quiz. A half-dozen of them were completely engaged throughout the course. Many, however, noticeably faded when we came to Purgatorio and Paradiso. The course starts with several weeks on selected Provencal, Sicilian, and Italian troubadour poems, then we do the Vita Nuova, then the Commedia. Consider that we have had the advantage of nearly seven hundred years of Dante scholarship in our current approach to Dante. Yet he is still daunting. Pound's conscious model was Dante, and The Cantos is a formidable work. The reader must invest time. For me, they are worth the effort. And I would rather spend my time reading and rereading Dante and Pound than reading what passes for prose in most journals in my profession. Cheers! Tim Redman -----Original Message----- From: - Ezra Pound discussion list of the University of Maine [mailto:[log in to unmask]]On Behalf Of Stoner James Sent: Thursday, January 02, 2003 12:19 PM To: [log in to unmask] Subject: Re: A complete (ly welcome) change of subject Jay, My recent posts assumes the great difficulty of Pound. My points raised have to do with finding ways of teaching and getting young people interested in Pounds work, among others important issues regarding his poetics, politics, and the relationship between his poetics and politics, as well as EzP's influence on culture, postmodernism, etc. I don't think I need to revisit the issues raised; they are important issues, and will come up from time to time. If it helps, think of me as Wei En-Lei, Pound, Berstein, Steiner, (and many others, although I'm not sure about Steiner, I will consult my psychic on that one :) now resurrected, as James Berstein Steiner Stoner Pound En Lei, if doesn't bother me really. I am glad to _be_ a Pound-like personae. I'm afraid that Pound would have been proud. I'm off to Georgia and will only check my e-mail once or twice, so feel comfort in the fact that you can go unquestioned for most of my absence. Smile people, it WILL be a great year for us all! We are already off to a great start. respectfully, Ezstoner Jay said: I thought this was a Pound list. Certainly in the past, before the long tempus tacendi, it was often very interesting. The recent spate of adolescent whinings about how difficult our poet is (why do people even respond to that stuff? isn't it just a given?), and questions about how to teach Zane Grey has me a little confused. On the other hand, I thanks Charles, Carlo, and some others for their insights, and especially their ability to form a lively sentence. I almost miss Wei En-Lei (spelling). Who'd ever've thunk that? Jay Anania __________________________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail Plus - Powerful. Affordable. Sign up now. http://mailplus.yahoo.com