Ezra Pound

1885–1972

https://www.ndbooks.com/author/ezra-pound/

Black and white photograph of Ezra Pound seated.

Photo by Archivio Cameraphoto Epoche/Getty Images

Ezra Pound is widely considered one of the most influential and most difficult poets of the 20th century; his contributions to Modernist poetry are enormous. He was an early champion of a number of avant-garde and Modernist poets, developed important channels of intellectual and aesthetic exchange between the United States and Europe, and contributed to important literary movements. Pound, along with Richard Aldington and other writers, founded the Imagist movement. Pound edited its first anthology, Des Imagistes, in 1914. He also helped found vorticism with Wyndham Lewis and the sculptor Henri Gaudier-Brzeska, which, for some, replaced Imagism. The founders published the magazine Blast.

In his efforts to develop new directions in the arts during what is now considered the Modernist period, Ezra Pound promoted and supported such acclaimed writers as James Joyce, T.S. Eliot, Robert Frost, W.B. Yeats, William Carlos Williams, Marianne Moore, H.D., and Ernest Hemingway.

Pound’s published books include A lume spento (1908), Exultations (1909), Personae (1909), Provenca (1910), Canzoni (1911), Lustra and Other Poems (1917), Hugh Selwyn Mauberley (1920), Umbra: Collected Poems (1920), Cantos I–XVI (1925), A Draft of XXX Cantos (1930), Homage to Sextus Propertius (1934), The Fifth Decade of Cantos (1937), Cantos LII-LXXI (1940), The Pisan Cantos (1948), Patria Mia (1950), and The Cantos (1972).

Ezra Pound was born in Hailey, Idaho, in 1885, and grew up near Philadelphia. He completed undergraduate work at the University of Pennsylvania and earned a BA in philosophy from Hamilton College, but he lived much of his adult life in England, France, and Italy.

Pound’s life’s work in poetry, The Cantos, remains a signal Modernist epic. Its mix of history, politics, and what Pound called “the periplum”—a point of view of one in the middle of a journey—gave countless poets incentive to develop a range of poetic techniques that capture life in the midst of experience. In an introduction to the Literary Essays of Ezra Pound, T.S. Eliot declared that Pound “is more responsible for the 20th-century revolution in poetry than is any other individual.” Donald Hall reaffirmed in remarks collected in Remembering Poets that “Ezra Pound is the poet who, a thousand times more than any other man, has made modern poetry possible in English.” Pound arguably never sought, nor had, a wide reading audience for his own work during his lifetime; his technical innovations and use of unconventional poetic materials often baffled even sympathetic readers. Early in his career, Pound aroused controversy because of his aesthetic views and later, because of his political views, including his support for the Fascist government in Italy. For the greater part of the 20th century, however, he devoted his energies to advancing the art of poetry.

Pound was involved in Fascist politics, particularly of Mussolini, and did not return to the United States until 1945, when he was arrested on charges of treason for broadcasting Fascist propaganda by radio to the United States during World War II. In 1946, he was acquitted of the charges and declared mentally unstable and committed to St. Elizabeths Hospital in Washington, D.C. During his confinement, the jury of the Bollingen Prize for Poetry overlooked Pound’s political career and focused on his literary achievements, awarding him the prize in 1948 for the Pisan Cantos. After appeals from those who knew him, Pound was released from the hospital in 1958. He died in November of 1972 and was buried in Italy, on the cemetery island Isola di San Michele.

Poems by Ezra Pound

Bibliography

POETRY

A Lume Spento (also see below), privately printed (Venice) by A. Antonini, 1908.
A Quinzaine for This Yule, Pollock (London), 1908.
Personae, Elkin Mathews (London), 1909.
Exultations, Elkin Mathews, 1909.
Provenca, Small, Maynard (Boston), 1910.
Canzoni, Elkin Mathews, 1911.
Ripostes of Ezra Pound, S. Swift (London), 1912, Small, Maynard, 1913.
Personae and Exultations of Ezra Pound, [London], 1913.
Canzoni and Ripostes of Ezra Pound, Elkin Mathews, 1913.
Lustra of Ezra Pound, Elkin Mathews, 1916 , Knopf (New York), 1917.
Quia Pauper Amavi, Egoist Press (London), 1918.
The Fourth Canto, Ovid Press (London), 1919.
(And translations) Umbra, Elkin Mathews, 1920.
Hugh Selwyn Mauberley, Ovid Press, 1920.
Poems, 1918-1921, Boni & Liveright (New York), 1921.
A Draft of XVI Cantos, Three Mountains Press, 1925.
Personae: The Collected Poems of Ezra Pound, Boni & Liveright, 1926.
Selected Poems, edited and with an introduction by T. S. Eliot, Faber & Gwyer, 1928, Laughlin, 1957.
A Draft of the Cantos 17-27, John Rodker (London), 1928.
A Draft of XXX Cantos, Hours Press (Paris), 1930, Farrar & Rinehart, 1933.
Homage to Sextus Propertius, Faber, 1934.
Eleven New Cantos: XXXI-XLI, Farrar & Rinehart, 1934, published in England as A Draft of Cantos XXXI-XLI, Faber, 1935.
(Under pseudonym The Poet of Titchfield Street) Alfred Venison’s Poems: Social Credit Themes, Nott (London), 1935.
The Fifth Decade of Cantos, Farrar & Rinehart, 1937.
Cantos LII-LXXI, New Directions (New York), 1940.
A Selection of Poems, Faber, 1940.
The Pisan Cantos (also see below), New Directions, 1948.
The Cantos of Ezra Pound (includes The Pisan Cantos ), New Directions, 1948, revised edition, Faber, 1954.
Selected Poems, New Directions, 1949.
Personnae: The Collected Poems of Ezra Pound, New Directions, 1950, published in England as Personnae: Collected Shorter Poems, Faber, 1952, new edition published as Collected Shorter Poems, Faber, 1968.
Seventy Cantos, Faber, 1950.
Section Rock-Drill, 85-95 de los Cantares, All’Insegna del Pesce d’Oro (Milan), 1955, New Directions, 1956.
Thrones: 96-109 de los Cantares, New Directions, 1959.
The Cantos (1-109), new edition, Faber, 1964.
The Cantos (1-95), New Directions, 1965.
A Lume Spento, and Other Early Poems, New Directions, 1965.
Selected Cantos, Faber, 1967.
Drafts and Fragments: Cantos CX-CXVII, New Directions, 1968.
From Syria: The Worksheets, Proofs, and Text, edited by Robin Skelton, Copper Canyon Press, 1981.
The Collected Early Poems of Ezra Pound, New Directions, 1982.
Diptych Rome-London (includes Hugh Selwyn Mauberley), New Directions, 1994.
Early Poems, Dover, 1996.
Ezra Pound: Poems and Translations, Library of America, 2004.

PROSE

The Spirit of Romance, Dent, 1910, New Directions, 1952, revised edition, P. Owen, 1953.
Gaudier-Brzeska: A Memoir Including the Published Writings of the Sculptor and a Selection from His Letters, John Lane, 1916, New Directions, 1961.
(With Ernest Fenollosa) Noh; or, Accomplishment: A Study of the Classical Stage of Japan, Macmillan (London), 1916, Knopf, 1917, published as The Classic Noh Theatre of Japan, New Directions, 1960.
Pavannes and Divisions, Knopf, 1918.
Instigations of Ezra Pound, Together with an Essay on the Chinese Written Character by Ernest Fenollosa, Boni & Liveright, 1920.
Indiscretions, Three Mountains Press (Paris), 1923.
(Under pseudonym William Atheling) Antheil and the Treatise on Harmony, Three Mountains Press, 1924, published under his own name, P. Covici, 1927, 2nd edition, Da Capo, 1968.
Imaginary Letters, Black Sun Press (Paris), 1930.
How to Read, Harmsworth, 1931.
ABC of Economics, Faber, 1933, New Directions, 1940, 2nd edition, Russell, 1953.
ABC of Reading, Yale University Press, 1934, new edition, Faber, 1951.
Make It New, Faber, 1934, Yale University Press, 1935.
Social Credit: An Impact (pamphlet), Nott, 1935.
Jefferson and/or Mussolini, Nott, 1935, Liveright, 1936.
Polite Essays, Faber, 1937, New Directions, 1940.
Culture, New Directions, 1938, new edition published as Guide to Kulchur, New Directions, 1952.
What Is Money For?, Greater Britain Publications, 1939, published as What Is Money For?: A Sane Man’s Guide to Economics, Revisionist Press, 1982.
Carla da Visita, Edizioni di Lettere d’Oggi (Rome), 1942, translation by John Drummond published as A Visiting Card, Russell, 1952, published as A Visiting Card: Ancient and Modern History of Script and Money, Revisionist Press, 1983.
L’America, Roosevelt e le Cause della Guerra Presente, Edizioni Popolari (Venice), 1944, translation by Drummond published as America, Roosevelt and the Causes of the Present War, Russell, 1951.
Introduzione alla Natura Economica degli S.U.A., Edizioni Popolari, 1944, English translation by Carmine Amore published as An Introduction to the Economic Nature of the United States, Russell, 1958.
Oro e Lavoro, Tip. Moderna (Rapallo, Italy), 1944, translation by Drummond published as Gold and Work, Russell, 1952.
Orientamenti, Edizioni Popolari, 1944.
“If This Be Treason...” (four original drafts of Rome radio broadcasts), privately printed for Olga Rudge, 1948.
The Letters of Ezra Pound, 1907-1941, edited by D. D. Paige, Harcourt, 1950.
Patria Mia, R. F. Seymour (Chicago), 1950, published in England as Patria Mia and The Treatise on Harmony, Owen, 1962.
Literary Essays of Ezra Pound, edited and with an introduction by T. S. Eliot, New Directions, 1954.
Lavoro ed Usura, All’Insegna del Pesce d’Oro, 1954.
Brancusi, [Milan], 1957.
Pavannes and Divagations, New Directions, 1958.
Impact: Essays on Ignorance and the Decline of American Civilization, edited and with an introduction by Noel Stock, Regnery, 1960.
EP to LU: Nine Letters Written to Louis Untermeyer, edited by J. A. Robbins, Indiana University Press, 1963.
Pound/Joyce: The Letters of Ezra Pound to James Joyce, edited by Forrest Read, New Directions, 1967.
Selected Prose, 1909-1965, edited by William Cookson, New Directions, 1973.
Ezra Pound and Music: The Complete Criticism, edited by R. Murray Schafer, New Directions, 1977.
“Ezra Pound Speaking”: Radio Speeches of World War II, edited by Leonard W. Doob, Greenwood Press, 1978.
Letters to Ibbotsom, 1935-1952, National Poetry Foundation, 1979.
Ezra Pound and the Visual Arts, edited by Harriet Zinnes, New Directions, 1980.
Letters to John Theobald, Black Swan Books, 1981.
Pound-Ford, the Story of a Literary Friendship: The Correspondence between Ezra Pound and Ford Madox Ford and Their Writings about Each Other, New Directions, 1982.
Ezra Pound and Dorothy Shakespear: Their Letters, 1909-1914, New Directions, 1984.
Pound-Lewis: The Letters of Ezra Pound and Wyndham Lewis, New Directions, 1985.
Selected Letters of Ezra Pound and Louis Zukofsky, New Directions, 1987.
Pound the Little Review: The Letters of Ezra Pound to Margaret Anderson, New Directions, 1988.
A Walking Tour in Southern France: Ezra Pound among the Troubadors, edited with an introduction by Richard Sieburth, New Directions, 1992.
The Letters of Ezra Pound to Alice Corbin Henderson, edited by Ira B. Nadel, University of Texas Press (Austin), 1993.
Ezra Pound and James Laughlin: Selected Letters, edited by David Gordon, Norton, 1994.
Ezra Pound and Senator Bronson Cutting: A Political Correspondence, 1930-1935, University of New Mexico Press, 1995.
Pound/Cummings: The Correspondence of Ezra Pound and E. E. Cummings, edited by Betty Ahearn, University of Michigan Press, 1996.
Pound/Williams: Selected Letters of Ezra Pound and William Carlos Williams, edited by Hugh Witemeyer, New Directions, 1996.
Machine Art and Other Writings: The Lost Thought of the Italian Years (essays), edited by Maria Luisa Ardizzone, Duke University Press, 1996.
Ezra and Dorothy Pound: Letters in Captivity, 1945-1946, edited by Omar Pound and Robert Spoo, Oxford University Press (New York, NY), 1998.
I Cease Not to Yowl: Ezra Pound’s Letters to Olivia Rossetti Agresti, edited by Demetres P. Tryphonopoulos and Leon Surette, University of Illinois Press (Urbana, IL), 1998.

TRANSLATOR

The Sonnets and Ballate of Guido Cavalcanti, Small, Maynard (Boston), 1912, published as Ezra Pound’s Cavalcanti Poems (includes Mediaevalism and The Other Dimension, by Pound), New Directions, 1966.
(Contributor of translations) Selections from Collection Yvette Guilbert, [London], 1912.
Cathay, Elkin Mathews, 1915.
Certain Noh Plays of Japan, Cuala Press (Churchtown), 1916.
Twelve Dialogues of Fontenelle, 1917.
(With Agnes Bedford) The Troubadour Sings, 1920.
Remy de Gourmount, The Natural Philosophy of Love, Boni & Liveright 1922.
Confucius, To Hio: The Great Learning, University of Washington Bookstore, 1928.
Confucius: Digest of the Analects, edited and published by Giovanni Scheiwiller, 1937.
Odon Por, Italy’s Policy of Social Economics, 1930-1940, Istituto Italiano D’Arti Grafiche (Bergamo, Milan and Rome), 1941.
(Translator into Italian, with Alberto Luchini) Ta S’eu Dai Gaku Studio Integrale, [Rapallo], 1942.
Confucius, The Great Digest [and] The Unwobbling Pivot, New Directions, 1951.
Confucius, Analects, Kasper & Horton (New York), 1951, published as The Confucian Analects, P. Owen, 1956, Square $ Series, 1957.
The Translations of Ezra Pound, edited by Hugh Kenner, New Directions, 1953, enlarged edition published asTranslations, New Directions, 1963.
The Classic Anthology, Defined by Confucius, Harvard University Press, 1954.
Richard of St. Victor, Pensieri sull’amore, [Milan], 1956.
Enrico Pea, Moscardino, All’ lnsegna del Pesce d’Oro (Milan), 1956.
Sophocles, Women of Tiachis (play; produced in New York at Living Theatre, June 22, 1960), Spearman, 1956, New Directions, 1957.
Rimbaud, All’ Insegna del Pesce d’Oro, 1957.
(With Noel Stock) Love Poems of Ancient Egypt, New Directions, 1962.

EDITOR

(And contributor) Des Imagistes (anthology; published anonymously), A. & C. Boni, 1914.
(And contributor) Catholic Anthology, 1914-1915, Elkin Mathews, 1915.
Passages from the Letters of John Butler Yeats, Cuala Press, 1917.
Ernest Hemingway, In Our Time, Three Mountains Press, 1924.
The Collected Poems of Harry Crosby, Volume Four, Torchbearer, [Paris], 1931.
Guido Cavalcanti, Rime, Marsano (Genoa), 1932.
Profiles (anthology), [Milan], 1932.
(And contributor) Active Anthology, Faber, 1933.
Ernest Fenollosa, The Chinese Written Character as a Medium for Poetry, Square $ Series, 1935.
(With Marcella Spann) Confucius to Cummings: An Anthology of Poetry, New Directions, 1964.

OTHER

The Cambridge Companion to Ezra Pound, edited by Ira B. Nadel, Cambridge University Press (New York, NY), 1998.

Contributor to British Union Quarterly, Townsman, Hudson Review, National Review, New Age (under the pseudonym Alfred Venison), and other periodicals. Also wrote the score for “Le Testament,” a ballet and song recital based on the poem by Francois Villon, 1919-21, first produced in its entirety at Gian Carlo Menotti’s Festival of Two Worlds, Spoleto, July 14, 1965; wrote opera, “Villon,” in the early 1920s, portions performed in Paris, 1924, and broadcast on the B.B.C., 1931 and 1962; wrote an unfinished opera, “Cavalcanti”; composer of several short pieces for the violin; transcribed medieval troubadour songs.