cantos (3) a draft of xxx cantos - minot state university：诗篇（3）汇票xxx篇-迈诺特州立大学

cantos (3) a draft of xxx cantos - minot state university：诗篇（3）汇票xxx篇-迈诺特州立大学 1 through the more typical means of using a Cantos (3): A Draft of XXX Cantos Ezra Pound?s epic poem The Cantos mediating narrator or voice. The canto thus asserts a universal moral vision wherein the offers stark and contrasting images muddied forces of greed and materialism concerning smoldering Troy, athletic struggle against those of natural process, triumph, mythic marriage, the founding of intellectual clarity, and spiritual light. In its Thebes, and much more. It includes the portrayal of this struggle, the long poem kinds of paradisal imagery found recurring defies the boundaries of time and space by throughout the later cantos, as well as details assuming that everything occurring in time from violent tragedies recorded in myth, and space is interchangeable, recurrent, and literature, and life. Mythic Acteaon, for best seen in its relationship to the same example, turns into a stag and is devoured essential truth that governs both the seen and by his own hunting dogs. Seremonda?s unseen worlds. This essential truth equates husband kills her lover, the medieval to an understanding of universal beauty, and troubadour Cabestan, and serves his cooked Pound?s long poem serves as an historical heart to her in a dish. Philomela and her and poetic commentary on the difficulty of sister Procne kill the son of Tereus, Procne?s creating, maintaining, or even recognizing husband, and serve him to Tereus for dinner such beauty. But how would he begin such a to avenge a rape, escaping afterwards poem? How would he make clear his through the air following their understanding of the struggle? transformation into birds by the empathetic As Ron Bush notes (see above), gods. Pound had been looking for a way to start Collectively, the details in Canto 4 his long poem since 1915, when he first illustrate the changing and seemingly began writing versions of what have come to unpredictable nature of human and divine be known as the three Ur-Cantos. These circumstance. They suggest that humankind took their final form in 1925, having been cannot defeat fate, the gods, or the forces of recast as a result of Pound?s independent human passion and self-interest. Yet at the publication of Canto 4 in 1919. This canto same time, amid fated circumstance, confirmed that Pound?s poetic intent was to humanity nevertheless continues to live, to convey meaning through the conceptual build, to try: Cabestan loves Seremonda; interplay of juxtaposed images rather than 2 Cadmus builds Thebes; marriages take All things change, it seems, but everything place; and crowds lead athletes in triumph essential remains. through the streets to the resounding Once underway, Pound publishes rhythms of poetry and song. These human Cantos 5, 6 and 7 in 1921, and 8 in 1922. In triumphs amid horror and excess somehow 1923, he published cantos 8-11, the occasionally evoke the human movement “Malatesta Cantos.” In these, Pound towards beauty. They do so despite the addresses another problem related both to assertion at canto?s end that “No wind is the his method of delivering meaning and his king?s wind” (5/16). Control of attempt at envisioning beauty existing circumstance presumably lies somewhere within the human condition. He used a beyond human ken. wealth of archival historical materials to tell thThus Canto 4 traces the course of the story of Sigismundo Malatesta, 15 human sensibility towards and away from century Lord of Rimini. Yet before Canto 8 the light. In doing so it also suggests one of delves into the historical record, a fight takes the key means by which Pound would place between Truth and Calliope, muse of attempt to make his poem cohere. Ensuing epic poetry. The jagged edge of Truth wins cantos would depend upon recurring out over the artificially seamless reality patterns of what Pound thought to be proposed by the traditional epic form essential aspects of human character, defended by Calliope. transmuted by circumstance and time. His Truth?s victory is key for Pound. sometime protagonist Odysseus, for Traditionally, epic poets alert their readers example, recurs in aspects of other sailors to the end of the story in the beginning, and personalities; his goddess Aphrodite thereby safeguarding their tales and their likewise surfaces in the transmuted forms of readers from unexpected intrusions and the ancient Greek Helen of Troy, the endings. By having Truth triumph, Pound in medieval Eleanor of Aquitaine, the “well effect asserts in Canto 8 that he intends to tressed goddess Kalypso, and much later, in create a bolder kind of epic tale. His tale will a young unnamed Italian girl, described as unveil a new reality rather than reiterate an “benecomata dea”—a well tressed goddess--old one. It will assert a truth of the kind that drPound suggested elsewhere could be “beaten iving her pigs home at sunset (76/480). 3 down” by the imposition onto truth of such a promotes a universal harmony based on predictable structural form as that of the order, civility, and intelligence. traditional epic. Thus by 1923 not only had Canto 13 introduces Kung or Pound decided against using a single Confucius. From his first appearance mediating sensibility to bring coherence to Confucius serves as a uniquely stable his long poem, but he had also formally manifestation of the factive personality. He announced his intent to stray from the is envisioned in the canto with his students traditional epic plan for the sake of greater amid peaceful cedar groves, considering human truth. how men and governments can stand firm Cantos 12 and 13 were published against all of the difficulties that blow into thtogether in 1924. The first offers a 20-the world. As such, Confucius is one of the century American merchant named Baldy few characters whose vision is sufficiently Bacon as yet another protagonist cut partly important to Pound that he refers to in the recurring figure of Odysseus, who Confucius here and there throughout the appears throughout the cantos in such guises cantos, long after references to other factive as Malatesta, the Chinese philosopher personalities have ceased. In Canto 13 Confucius, the American presidents Adams Pound adds his own closing lines indicating and Jefferson, the Italian Fascist Mussolini, that he too, like Confucius, will oppose and others. Collectively, Pound sees all of chaos and stupidity with order, intelligence, these figures as manifestations of the and beauty. “„The blossoms of the apricot/ “factive” personality. They are the doers of blow from the east to the west?,” Pound the world, men and women of vision who writes, “„And I have tried to keep them from are often stopped short of fulfilling their falling?” (13/60). The very next cantos, visions as a result of the dark and imbecilic however, suggests that doing so will be a forces of their day. Yet even as failures daunting task. these men and women move human culture The Dantean “Hell” Cantos 14 and towards beauty. Malatesta builds a temple 15, and the “Purgatory” Canto 16 were first the outside of which is covered in well-published when Pound in 1925 brought all wrought art; Adams, Jefferson and of his revised cantos together under the Mussolini create nations; and Confucius working title A Draft of XVI Cantos. Cantos 4 14 and 15 are replete with unpleasant expression. It is also embodied in the images of self-serving, corrupting, character of certain gods, goddesses, and unproductive people surrounded by fecal symbols, and is associated with fertility, matter and water slugs, their “faces smeared creation, and all kinds of growth. Thus in on their rumps” (14/61), their penises limp, this canto Dionysius, Venus, Athena, their condoms “full of black-beetles” Persephone and others traverse a land and (15/63). Canto 15 ends with another human seascape abundant in bounding white protagonist being led through the oozing hounds and loping porpoise, where gulls cry fetid mud of Hell to safety, then being above cresting waves and bees fly amid washed in acid to remove all traces of his vines bursting under a still paradisal light, experience. Canto 16 begins with the same “not of the sun” (17/77). In this manner, the protagonist at “hell?s mouth,” where he canto moves spatially towards an idealized meets the romantic poet and painter, Venice--one of the first historical cities William Blake, who is running about and wherein Pound tries to locate permanently howling against evil (16/68). The Purgatory his sense of earthly beauty. Even in Canto of Canto 16 is a place for flawed heroes 18, however, historical Venice proves such as Malatesta, and for past thinkers and incapable of sustaining elevated beauty, and builders. It also contains men who died or instead succumbs to the forces of darkness. who fought in World War I--a real life hell Borso and Carmagnola, for example, two thdescribed by Pound as having been created 15-century Italians to whom Pound refers by the forces of self-interest, ugliness, and as “men of craft” (17/78), are separately corruption. attacked in Venice: Borso has arrows shot at These same forces appear to struggle him, and Carmagnola is betrayed and with clarity, truth, and beauty in Cantos 17 executed. and 18. Canto 17 envisions a divine energy Canto 18 opens with the 13th-capable of overcoming the dark forces. century Mongol Kublai Khan bringing According to Eugene Paul Nassar, the cultural and economic order to his kingdom. presence of this divine energy is often Khan employed paper currency rather than invoked by Pound through his switch from a heavy gold coin to promote economic normal to an elevated lyrical mode of poetic exchange. In this way, the figure of Khan 5 subject all of human and divine endeavor, introduces what would become for Pound an manifest through time and space. The result obsession with the belief that the human struggle against self-interest, ugliness, and was an unexpected and exciting new kind of corruption needed to include the re-creation poetry; but at the same time, this new poetry of economic principles as part of its task. drew charges of incoherence and artlessness Yet in the same canto in which sound from critics. They were kind to Pound at economics is heralded as part of the solution first, but soon began to wonder. In 1918, the to human problems, Pound suggests that just three early Ur cantos were explained by one the opposite also is true. Weapons makers critic as part of Pound?s meditative and munitions dealers of World War I autobiography, and the poet T.S. Eliot called vintage feed the human penchant for war, them a “rag-bag” of Pound?s readings, and for their efforts, are rewarded somehow containing a “positive coherence.” economically and socially by a society that By 1925 the critical mood had changed, and on one level appears unable to tell the perhaps anticipating further charges of difference between philanthropists and incoherence, Pound announced that he did criminals. As the poet notes in disgust at the not want anyone yet commenting on his end of the canto, “War, one war after work. another / Men start „em who couldn?t put up In 1928, and doubtless under even a hen-roost” (18/83). more pressure to explain his poetic plan, Despite the perceived difficulty of Pound suggested to his friend and fellow solving societal problems in his cantos, by poet William Butler Yeats that his long the mid-1920s Pound had solved several poem?s structure was much like a “Bach problems concerning the intention and fugue.” In 1929, Pound wrote his father that design of his long poem. He had been bold the poem was to operate musically, in his attempt at writing a new kind of epic, somewhat like “subject and response and one proceeding without a mediating counter response.” After several such sensibility, without a traditional structure, attempts at explanations, it began to seem and without a fixed protagonist. He had been clear to many that Pound really did not have even bolder in his attempt to write such an an answer to questions concerning epic while using as both resource and coherence--yet all the while his poem 6 became more ambitious and daring. mind, nature, and action. Canto 23, for Between 1925 and 1928, eleven new cantos example, begins with the Latin phrase “Et were written and published as A Draft of omniformis omnis intellectus est.” Taken rdCantos 17-27 in 1928. century A.D. Neoplatonist from the 3 Cantos 18-28 continue to chronicle Porphyry?s De Occasionibus, the phrase the contention between clear and muddied translates “and every intellect is capable of human action, and illustrate Pound?s belief assuming every shape.” In related fashion, that even in those who possess clarity, right Canto 25 recalls that the Neoplatonic action is often beclouded by personal flaws understanding of the Greek term ,,，, or by the dark actions of others. In Canto 19 suggests that intelligence is the active divine a man with an invention that will benefit agent of the universe. Together, these and people is convinced by a big company to sell like assertions link human and divine out, move into a mansion, and forget that his intellect, natural process, production, clarity, invention is kept off the market. In canto 20 and an insistent, vibrant, pulsing of the thNiccolo D?Este, ruler of 15 century Ferrara blood. Such alliances throughout the cantos and a great peacemaker, beheads his son are also continually linked to natural Ugo and wife Parasina in a jealous rage and proliferation and ritualized traditions such as falls prey to remorse. Joe, an American the ancient Greek Eleusinian mysteries, a craftsman in Canto 22, cannot compete in a “blood rite,” (21/100,25/118) that delivers to work environment driven by capitalism and those who undergo it an epoptea, or characterized by mass production. His work emotional and intellectual “awakening” to is too well and carefully done. And in the their immortal place within the universe. th16 century Venice of Canto 25, civic Awakenings of this sort create a paradise in leaders watch while two caged lions the mind and heart, and once there, Pound copulate, unaware of how separate they have variously suggests, an earthly paradise become from the kinds of action that cannot be far behind. produce new life and growth. Pound added three more cantos and Yet cantos 18-27 also suggest that in 1930 published A Draft of XXX Cantos. humanity can control its own destiny Three years later, he formally declared the through recognizing the connection between “ideogrammic method” as the one he was 7 using in his lengthening poem. The roots of outcome he may have had in mind. For him, Pound?s ideogrammic method can be traced the struggle of those who believe in a to his study of Ernest Fenollosa?s theory beautiful world created and maintained concerning Chinese poetry, beginning in through artistry, intellect, and natural 1912. While it is uncertain whether process must continue, and while that Fenollosa?s theory served as a mediating or struggle will be a difficult one, any success organizing force in the first thirty cantos, makes the world a better place, if even for a there can be little doubt that after 1933, fragment of time. Pound began creating cantos in accordance with his understanding of it. This resulted in the composition of increasingly large blocks of textual images intended to deliver a multivalent understanding or “ideogram” of a subject or topic. Yet sometimes Pound?s text blocks spanned several pages and cantos. For many of his devoted readers, the ensuing results often stretched the limits of their imagination and their sense of poetics. Pound?s last canto in A Draft of XXX Cantos envisions a fight wherein the precise and pitiless goddess Artemis triumphs over a materialistic and chaotic Madam X. For many of Pound?s readers, however, the true outcome of that fight would remain forever unclear. Even after another thirty or so years had passed, and another eighty-six or so cantos had been written, Pound?s long unfinished poem may be said to serve more as a testament to his enduring system of beliefs than it does to any clear and finite 8 Robert E. Kibler Bibliography Albright, Daniel. “Early Cantos I-XLI.” The Cambridge Companion to Ezra Pound. Ed. Ira Nadel. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1999. Akehurst, F.R.P., and Judith Davis. A Handbook of the Troubadours. Berkeley: U of California P, 1995. Carpenter, Humphrey. A Serious Character: The Life of Ezra Pound. New York: Dell, 1988. Barthes, Roland. S/Z. Trans. Richard Miller. New York: Hill and Wang, 1974. Gefin, Laszlo. Ideogram: History of a Poetic Method. Austin: U of Texas P, 1982. Kerenyi, Carl. Eleusis: Archetypal Image of Mother and Daughter. Princeton: Princeton UP, 1967. Nassar, Eugene Paul. The Cantos of Ezra Pound: The Lyric Mode. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins UP, 1975. Nolde, John. Blossoms from the East: The China Cantos of Ezra Pound. Orono: National Poetry Foundation, 1983. Surette, Leon. A Light from Eleusis: A Study of Ezra Pound’s Cantos. London: Clarendon P, 1979.