Tim Romano pointed out that Pound's language is "relatively natural, straightforward, even colloquial". You bet it is. That's not what I meant by stilted. I meant that it shows its place in time and that place is distant. As a model, it is not stilted, mind you. And yes, at least it isn't circumplectious polysyllabic, a fashion which Pound's example of straightforward talk sadly never managed to expurgate. Would not the current talk among some new formalists of imagism being retrograde and destructive of poetry and language be leaning in that direction? But that's a different matter. Dan Pearlman thought out loud: >>if the Cantos were to become available in hypertext format on the 'Net (infinite Borgesian links, etc.) we would see a tremendous upsurge in interest in EP among the twenty-nothing and thirty- nothing generation that has hardly even heard of him. ND might be smart to offer, let's say, the first 30 Cantos in this format on the Net for free and hope to rope in buyers of a CD-hypertext version of the whole work. Maybe even the book itself.<< Perfect. I hope they start tomorrow. I reckon we got the 20th century wrong. We might as well line up again at the starting gate. regards, Harold Rhenisch [log in to unmask]