Pound, Ezra (Vol. 10) | Introduction
Pound, Ezra 1885–1972
Pound was an American poet, translator, and critic. His political sympathies at one time threatened to diminish his reputation as one of the most innovative and creative artists of his generation. Influencing poetry before, during, and after his career as a poet, Pound was a secretary to Yeats, playing an important part in transforming that great poet's artistic vision during his last period. He is responsible for editing The Waste Land into the form that won Eliot world-wide acclaim, and his tenacious support of Joyce during a period of financial distress allowed the novelist to finish Ulysses. His Fascist sentiments during the Second World War and his subsequent confinement, first in an Italian prison and later in an American mental institution, shattered his optimism but not his artistic gifts. He was able to emerge from his experience with his poetic gifts intact, and continued to contribute to his monumental opus, the Cantos. Originally a proponent of the Imagist school, with the Cantos Pound established himself as a unique artist. In this long poem Pound draws from the historical and artistic wealth of the ages to tell the story of an Odyssean character journeying through time. The points of reference raised in the Cantos are often obscure, but they reveal Pound's vast knowledge of history and culture and his determination to use the past to explicate the present. (See also CLC, Vols. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, and Contemporary Authors, Vols. 5-8, rev. ed.; obituary, Vols. 37-40.)
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