Selected Poems of Ezra Pound

by Ezra Pound

Overview

Ezra Pound has been called "the inventor of modern poetry in English."

The verse and criticism which he produced during the early years of the twentieth century very largely determined the directions of creative writing in our time; virtually every major poet in England and America today has acknowledged his help or influence. Pound's lyric genius, his superb technique, and his fresh insight into literary problems make him one of the small company of men who through the centuries have kept poetry alive—one of the great innovators.

This book offers a compact yet representative selection of Ezra Pound's poems and translations. The span covered is Pound's entire writing career, from his early lyrics and the translations of Provençal songs to his English version of Sophocles' Trachiniae. Included are parts of his best known works—the Chinese translations, the sequence called Hugh Selwyn Mauberly, the Homage to Sextus Propertius. The Cantos, Pound's major epic, are presented in generous selections, chosen to emphasize the main themes of the whole poem.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780811201629
Publisher:	New Directions Publishing Corporation
Publication date:	01/17/1957
Series:	New Directions Paperbook , #66
Pages:	184
Sales rank:	694,688
Product dimensions:	5.20(w) x 8.00(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

New Directions has been the primary publisher of Ezra Pound in the U.S. since the founding of the press when James Laughlin published New Directions in Prose and Poetry 1936. That year Pound was fifty-one. In Laughlin’s first letter to Pound, he wrote: “Expect, please, no fireworks. I am bourgeois-born (Pittsburgh); have never missed a meal. . . . But full of ‘noble caring’ for something as inconceivable as the future of decent letters in the US.” Little did Pound know that into the twenty-first century the fireworks would keep exploding as readers continue to find his books relevant and meaningful.

Table of Contents

	Biography	viii
	A Ballad of the Mulberry Road	60
	Alba	36
	Alba from "Langue d'Oc"	42
	Amities	33
	Ancient Music	38
	An Object	18
	A Pact	27
	Apparuit	22
	April	29
	Arides	33
	A Song of the Degrees	31
	A Virginal	23
	Ballad of the Goodly Fere	9
	"Blandula, Tenella, Vagula"	13
	Brennbaum	66
	Cantos	96
	Cino	1
	Coda	34
	Coitus	36
	Dance Figure	28
	Difference of Opinion with Lygdamus	82
	Envoi (1919)	70
	Epitaphs	39
	Erat Hora	14
	Exile's Letter	56
	From Homage to Sextus Propertius	78
	Hugh Selwyn Mauberley	61
	In a Station of the Metro	35
	Ite	31
	Lament of the Frontier Guard	55
	Les Millwin	30
	Mauberley (1920)	71
	Medallion	77
	Meditatio	34
	Mr. Nixon	67
	Na Audiart	3
	Near Perigord	42
	Of Jacopo del Sellaio	23
	Pagani's, November 8	41
	Planh for the Young English King	12
	Poem by the Bridge at Ten-Shin	54
	Portrait d'une Femme	16
	Salutation	26
	Salvationists	32
	Sestina: Altaforte	7
	"Siena mi fe'; disfecemi Maremma"	66
	Song of the Bowmen of Shu	49
	Taking Leave of a Friend	59
	Tame Cat	37
	Tenzone	24
	"The Age Demanded"	73
	The Beautiful Toilet	50
	The Coming of War: Actaeon	35
	The Encounter	36
	The Garden	26
	The Garret	25
	The House of Splendour	14
	The Jewel Stairs' Grievance	55
	The Lake Isle	38
	The Rest	29
	The Return	24
	The River-merchant's Wife: A Letter	52
	The River Song	51
	The Seafarer	18
	The Spring	27
	The Tea Shop	37
	The Tomb of Akr Caar	15
	The Tree	6
	The White Stag	7
	Villanelle: The Psychological Hour	39
	Villonaud for this Yule	5
	Women of Trachis	183
	Yeux Glauques	65
	[characters not reproducible]	21
	[characters not reproducible]	37