Ezra Pound and Guido Cavalcanti: a Study of Conscious: Design in Pound's Poetry

Abstract

<p>Criticism of Pound has necessarily to take account of the great variety of influences on Pound's work, and, indeed, of his peripheral interests, for in the latter is also evidence of his general 'orientation'. The critic has to determine what has been Pound's conscious design and what is its precise relation to his practise as a poet.</p> <p>In general, though, the critic begins with Pound; that is, he sees these influences and interests through Pound, or rather, he sees them in terms of what Pound ultimately makes of them. But in order to see them as Pound himself saw them, as he first perceived that in them which stimulated him in one way or another and which thus contributed significantly to his development, we must take the process a stage further back and begin with the influence itself. Such has been my intention in this thesis. l have isolated one especially significant influence, Guido Cavalcanti, whose interest for Pound includes both his technical mastery and his 'metaphysical' orientation, and who provides a constant model of excellence, in order to determine first of all what is the nature of that excellence and then to measure it against Pound's appreciation and emulation. It is my hope that this will provide a new way of seeing Pound. The critic who begins with Pound has necessarily to take certain things for granted; he must see things:, as it were, on Pound's terms. But this is to remain at one remove from the creative process in which the object of his criticism is borne The creative artist, in the act of creating, has no 'terms' (unless he be a dogmatist, and Pound sometimes lapses in this way); he has only an as yet ungrasped reality to penetrate and embody in words, or granite, or whatever is his medium. My intention has been to approach closer to this process, by assuming that it is at least in part a conscious process. Not that the emphasis of the thesis is 'psychological'. Its emphasis is rather on art, or on the effort that goes into art. l have had perforce to limit myself strictly to Cavalcanti and to Pound's dealings with him, but l have tried to imply and suggest a larger view of Pound's work. Indeed, as l hope to demonstrate, Pound' s dealings: with Cavalcanti are germane to his: whole poetic endeavour.</p>