Ezra Pound

Highlights of Poetry. Index of poetry. How to Write Poetry. New Books read.

How to write specific forms:
Haibun. Haiku. Hay(na)ku. Rengay. Tanka.
Ballade. Concrete. Ghazal. Lai. Pantoum. Prose poem. Rondeau. Rubáiyát.
Sestina. Skaldic verse. Sonnet. Terza rima. Triolet. Tritina. Villanelle.

Poets: Adam Zagajewski. Aleda Shirley. Anne Carson.
Bashō. The Beowulf Poet. Billy Collins. Billy Collins exercise.
Snorri's Edda. Carl Dennis. Charles Atkinson. Chase Twichell. Corey Marks. Ezra Pound.
François Villon Franz Wright. Galway Kinnell. Gary Young. The Gawain Poet.
J. D. McClatchy. J. Zimmerman. J. Zimmerman (haiku). J. Zimmerman (tanka).
Jack Gilbert. Jane Hirshfield. Jean Vengua.
Jorie Graham. Karen Braucher. Karl Shapiro. Kay Ryan.
Laureate Poets: Britain; USA.
Len Anderson. Les Murray. Li-Young Lee (and Li-Young Lee reading 2003). Linda Pastan. Louise Glück. Marianna Monaco (haiku).
Mary Oliver. Nordic Skalds. Pulitzer Poetry Prize (U.S.A). Rainer Maria Rilke Richard Hugo. Robert Bly.
Sappho. Sara Teasdale. Shiki (haiku). Snorri's Edda. Stephen Dunn.
Ted Kooser. W.S. Merwin.

Ezra Pound's ABC of Reading

Short, lively, excellent introduction of Pound to his own poetics.

Ezra Pound: The Cantos by George Kearns

Chronology

"Toward reading the Cantos", which encourages just reading the book rather than trying to understand every reference.
"Installments":
- 1930: draft of XXX Cantos.
- 1934: eleven new Cantos.
- 1937: the fifth decad of Cantos, including the three great lyrics 45, 47, and 49.
- 1940: Cantos LII to LXXI.
- 1948: The Pisan Cantos.
- 1955: Rock Drill.
- 1959: Thrones.
- 1969: Drafts and fragments of Cantos.
"Representative figures", i.e. who he quotes (though without attribution, instead of avoiding plagiarism): Confucius, Fenollosa, Ovid, Scotus Erigena, Cavalcanti, Douglas, Adams, Mussolini.
"Dissemination", which includes Pounds criticism of a poet that copies his style as having "linguistic parasitism". Reports [p. 111]: "The Cantos, as a long poem breaking with structures of narrative, drama, or philosophical discourse (all of which it contains, fragmented), has provided ... an example or encouragement for many long poems or poetic 'sequences'".

Concludes with a useful "Guide to further reading", evaluating about 70 texts. Particularly recommends Carroll Terrell's "monumental labor of love", A Companion to the Cantos of Ezra Pound and Hugh Kenner's "dazzling" The Pound Era (1971).

Links and Books.

Links and Books.

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