and do not rhyme. This is not to say that Canto 1 is without structure: The first section of the poem echoes the rhythms of Anglo-Saxon poetry, while the final lines loosely mimic certain classic verse patterns.

The language that Pound uses in the first part of Canto 1 is that of the Old English “seafarer poet.” The result is a story drawn from Greek literature told in the mock-language of early medieval England. Throughout the Cantos, Pound uses this kind of juxtaposition of subject matter drawn from one literary or historical period and poetic language drawn from another. In making such junctions, Pound’s intention was to show the reader certain important similarities—in thought and feeling—between eras that might seem at first glance very different.

In this case, Pound believed that Odysseus and the anonymous seafarer from the European Dark Ages were spiritual brothers. Both were animated by the desire to sail unknown seas in small, perilous ships, simply for the sake of discovery. Both find that the discoveries they make have more to do with their own inner landscape than with the geography of new lands.

Devices echoing Anglo-Saxon poetry include reversal (“Circe’s this craft,” “unpierced ever,”), alliteration (“swart ship,” “sun to his slumber”), and archaic language (“swart,” “ell-square pitkin,” “ingle,” “bever,” “fosse”). Overall, the rhythm of this section suggests the rolling of the small ship over the sea’s breakers.

“Kennings,” compound terms that describe metaphorically some common object, are another Anglo-Saxon poetic device used in Canto 1 (“nape-nerve” for “neck”).

Pound wants his readers to pay close attention to his poem’s sources, its allusions. Generally, allusion takes place in poetry through mention of a name, place, or idea associated with some other work of literature or with some historical event. More rarely, a poet may quote or mimic another writer. In the Cantos, however, Pound goes even further: In the section describing Odysseus’s journey to the underworld, for example, Pound is freely translating a Latin translation (that of Divus) of Homer’s original Greek. In the last lines (“Cypri munimenta sortita est,” or “Cyprus is allotted to her”), Pound even reproduces Divus’s exact words. Pound’s abundant use of foreign languages throughout the Cantos—sometimes with English translations following, sometimes not—forces the reader to pay attention to the literary and cultural sources of his allusions. Untranslated words and phrases in Canto 1 include “in officina Wecheli” (a reference to the place of publication of Divus’s translation); “Venerandam,” “worthy of veneration”; “Argicida,” “killer of Argus” (a reference to the Greek god Hermes); and “orichalchi,” “coppery.” In this canto, all foreign-language phrases are in either Greek or Latin.

There are also abundant allusions to classical myth and Homeric epic. Perimedes, Eurylochus, and Elpenor are all members of Odysseus’s crew. Erebus and Avernus are different names for the underworld. Finally, Canto 1 displays a formal device that, although it runs throughout the Cantos, is generally nontraditional: Many lines are fragmented, having no clear grammatical subject or object. The final phrase—“So that:”—is characteristic of this device. Moreover, Pound shifts abruptly from speaker to speaker in Canto 1, as in the jump from “And then Anticlea came” (spoken by Odysseus) to “Lie quiet Divus” (ostensibly Pound himself). As a result, fragmentation and abrupt shifts in persona create much disorientation in most readers, but Pound’s intention here is to spur the reader to greater efforts, to motivate him or her to participate more fully than usual in generating meaning from the poem.