The Cantos | Essays and Criticism

  • The Cantos in their Historical Context

    In this essay, Barnhisel looks at the Cantos in their historical context. He argues that the poem became the focal point for a debate in American culture whose ramifications went far beyond the poem, Pound, or even literature.

  • Ezra Pound

    Excerpted criticism on The Cantos.

  • Pound and Homer

    Hugh Kenner relates Ezra Pound's connection with Homer and how this association both inspires and informs his Cantos.

  • A Retrospect

    In his essay "Retrospect," Pound gives advice to new poets, detailing his opinions, approach, and ideas regarding the craft.

  • The Cantos

    In the following essay, M. L. Rosenthal discusses Pound's Cantos as a work that must be read "'experientially" rather than "schematically" and how this reading exposes its historical scope and its multiple voices.