Ezra Pound is among the most remarkable men of the last 120 years. Poet Ezra Pound authored more than 70 books. He is the most brilliant founder of Modernism — a movement which sought to create art in a more precise and succinct form. Modernism can be seen as a natural reaction to the florid, heavy Victorian sensibility — it is not the meaningless abstractions we are assaulted with today.
He made his name as a poet and mentored W. B. Yeats, T. S. Elliot and Ernest Hemingway on their way to the Noble Prize (back when it meant something). He introduced the world to up-and-coming poets like Robert Frost and D.H. Lawrence, James Joyce, and was T.S. Eliot's editor.
Your public school didn't teach this? Mine didn't. Do you know why?
I too read those authors when I was in school, and lament that they hardly are even taught or mentioned anymore in the modern high school English curriculum. That's my point.
Good response. I recall that Robert Frost, T.S. Elliot, and Ernest Hemingway were promoted in the school I went to a long time ago. I remember the teacher reading Robert Frost poems. But, no Ezra Pound. The irony is none of these people would have become famous without Ezra Pound's help. Even the Irish novelist James Joyce, whom Ezra Pound helped introduce to publishers and find landing spots in magazines for several of the stories in "The Dubliners" and "A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man." During Joyce's leanest years, Pound helped him with money and even, it is said, helped secure for him an old pair of shoes to wear.
Great American author and poet? William Faulker, Eudora Welty, Earnest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Carl Sandburg, Robert Frost, James Fenimore Cooper, Herman Melville, Billy Collins... the list is too long for this limited space.
But as I recall, Ezra Pound was a great admirer of Mussolini and his fascist policies in Italy.
So where do you get that information--- "a great admirer of Mussolini and his fascist policies in Italy." And what does it mean exactly? Did Pound ever use those words? If General George Patton admired Rommel, does that mean Patton was a Nazi fascist? Ezra Pound lived in Italy. He moved to Europe in 1906. Pound saw the ravaging effects of WWI and was anti-war. Pound knew who it was that was trying to get America involved in the war. FDR was elected because of his anti-war positions. He told Americans, who by a large majority were against getting involved in WWII, that the United States would not get involved. Unfortunately, American people believed him. Likewise, are you suggesting Ezra Pound having the same stance as the majority of the American people did, were "fascist"?
Was it because Mussolini was against the allies case for war? Because Ezra Pound named the scoundrels behind World War II? Or was it because Mussolini made the trains run on time? Pound lived in Europe from 1906 and was living in Italy until his arrest in 1945. It was a beautiful place to be in the early 1900s. Working for a radio station for meager wages to live by, which was funded by the government doesn't necessarily make Pound a fascist. On this side of the pond, Father Charles Coughlin was a very popular American radio host who supported Mussolini. Henry Ford to the esteemed, path-blazing New York Times foreign correspondent Anne O’Hare McCormick, expressions of fascist sympathy had reached the center of mainstream discourse and American political thought by the late 1930s. Are they all fascist too?
What is exactly the definition of fascism? It derives from from Latin 'fascis' meaning 'bundle'. This was the Roman symbol of authority, which they carried a bound bundle of wooden rods. Much later, the word was used as the Italian political party that Mussolini headed, from which the word-- 'fascism' is applied. Benito Mussolini said fascism was the marriage between the corporation and State. This also happens to be socialism, which are the prevalent governments of Europe, NZ, and Australia. In the United States it is also very true. One can argue minutia about whether socialism, crony capitalism, corporatism, and even communism is fascist or not. In varying degrees, they are all fascist. Big Tech in the United States appears to be married to government, as we are now finding out. Therefore, by definition we are a fascist nation.
My point is back in the 1922s to the middle of 1930s, no one had any issue Mussolini's Party until he supported Germany. As scholars such as Robert O. Paxton and Sheri Berman have noted, Italian fascism did not emerge as a sui generis authoritarian ideology and, in the beginning, was not explicitly premised on extreme racism, in contrast to German National Socialism. This is what Ezra Pound knew, but as the tides changed to Europe and Italy at war, Pound did all he could to prevent the war from engulfing Europe. From the Italian point of view, it was the Anglo-Americans who were the aggressors. The intellectual Pound knew who was behind getting America into the war. This was his crime, when he named these culprits. He did so just as Benjamin Freedman had done.
You keep dropping a guilt-by-association as reason to throw down one of America's greatest writers. I won't ever do this for the same reason I won't throw down Mark Twain being a 'racist' or a Thomas Jefferson owning slaves. To me, it's a shallow attempt to tarnish a great historical figure who was ultimately correct about the causes of World War II.
Politics aside, I simply never saw much artistry or worth in Pound's poetry. There, I said it, not a very popular opinion among the literati, but it's mine.
The famous American poet had been convicted of treason for revealing in radio broadcasts that World War Two had been started by International Jewry to further its own ends of world domination. He was kept thirteen years in a lunatic asylum in a urine-soaked cell, originally in solitary confinement and forced to wear a straitjacket. Only much later was he allowed to receive visitors such as Mullins.
“Ezra Pound fought the Jews openly. And he suffered grievously as a consequence, spending thirteen years in a hideous, urine-soaked madhouse…”
Does this quote remind you of the present jailed J6-ers?
HOWEVER, I, ironically, was introduced to him in High School and I can guarantee his writing went over my head. Strange that.
Glad you mentioned him; brings him back on the radar. Have a few books by, and about, him floating around in storage. Everything is pointing to me dusting off these tomes sometime in the near future.
Ezra Pound is among the most remarkable men of the last 120 years. Poet Ezra Pound authored more than 70 books. He is the most brilliant founder of Modernism — a movement which sought to create art in a more precise and succinct form. Modernism can be seen as a natural reaction to the florid, heavy Victorian sensibility — it is not the meaningless abstractions we are assaulted with today.
He made his name as a poet and mentored W. B. Yeats, T. S. Elliot and Ernest Hemingway on their way to the Noble Prize (back when it meant something). He introduced the world to up-and-coming poets like Robert Frost and D.H. Lawrence, James Joyce, and was T.S. Eliot's editor.
Your public school didn't teach this? Mine didn't. Do you know why?
Thank you for this touching and valuable info . I personally didn’t learn about him .. I will now , whst a powerful statement !!!!!
Im gonna go off 30+ year memory here.
He criticized Israel.
Nope.
Aaaaah, W.B. Yeats. I want An Irish Airman Foresees His Death read at my funeral.
Your point is...?
I too read those authors when I was in school, and lament that they hardly are even taught or mentioned anymore in the modern high school English curriculum. That's my point.
Good response. I recall that Robert Frost, T.S. Elliot, and Ernest Hemingway were promoted in the school I went to a long time ago. I remember the teacher reading Robert Frost poems. But, no Ezra Pound. The irony is none of these people would have become famous without Ezra Pound's help. Even the Irish novelist James Joyce, whom Ezra Pound helped introduce to publishers and find landing spots in magazines for several of the stories in "The Dubliners" and "A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man." During Joyce's leanest years, Pound helped him with money and even, it is said, helped secure for him an old pair of shoes to wear.
So sorry that Ernest Hemingway is much out of favor these days.
OMG, Ernst Hemingway was one of the greatest.
I'm hoping many more think the same.
Yeah, we read about Ezra Pound in the 60s,70s before busing screwed it up for everyone.
Ezra Pound steered Eustace Mullins to go looking into the FEDERAL RESERVE.
The Secrets of the Federal Reserve was the result! EUSTACE MULLINS ON EZRA POUND https://www.bitchute.com/video/BpkGTagRfdBS/
https://www.bitchute.com/search/?query=eustace%20mullins%20ezra%20pound&kind=video
https://search.brave.com/search?q=eustace+mullins+ezra+pound+federal+reserve&source=desktop
Jesus Christ set me free. The only way to truly get free.
Jesus Christ is the truth and it is truth that will set you free. Not lies or censorship,
Great American author and poet? William Faulker, Eudora Welty, Earnest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Carl Sandburg, Robert Frost, James Fenimore Cooper, Herman Melville, Billy Collins... the list is too long for this limited space.
But as I recall, Ezra Pound was a great admirer of Mussolini and his fascist policies in Italy.
So where do you get that information--- "a great admirer of Mussolini and his fascist policies in Italy." And what does it mean exactly? Did Pound ever use those words? If General George Patton admired Rommel, does that mean Patton was a Nazi fascist? Ezra Pound lived in Italy. He moved to Europe in 1906. Pound saw the ravaging effects of WWI and was anti-war. Pound knew who it was that was trying to get America involved in the war. FDR was elected because of his anti-war positions. He told Americans, who by a large majority were against getting involved in WWII, that the United States would not get involved. Unfortunately, American people believed him. Likewise, are you suggesting Ezra Pound having the same stance as the majority of the American people did, were "fascist"?
https://campuspress.yale.edu/modernismlab/ezra-pound/
https://www.newhistorian.com/2016/04/17/ezra-pound-poet-supported-mussolini-released/
https://medium.com/frame-of-reference/the-fascist-poet-ba545892854d
It's really easy if you try.
Was it because Mussolini was against the allies case for war? Because Ezra Pound named the scoundrels behind World War II? Or was it because Mussolini made the trains run on time? Pound lived in Europe from 1906 and was living in Italy until his arrest in 1945. It was a beautiful place to be in the early 1900s. Working for a radio station for meager wages to live by, which was funded by the government doesn't necessarily make Pound a fascist. On this side of the pond, Father Charles Coughlin was a very popular American radio host who supported Mussolini. Henry Ford to the esteemed, path-blazing New York Times foreign correspondent Anne O’Hare McCormick, expressions of fascist sympathy had reached the center of mainstream discourse and American political thought by the late 1930s. Are they all fascist too?
What is exactly the definition of fascism? It derives from from Latin 'fascis' meaning 'bundle'. This was the Roman symbol of authority, which they carried a bound bundle of wooden rods. Much later, the word was used as the Italian political party that Mussolini headed, from which the word-- 'fascism' is applied. Benito Mussolini said fascism was the marriage between the corporation and State. This also happens to be socialism, which are the prevalent governments of Europe, NZ, and Australia. In the United States it is also very true. One can argue minutia about whether socialism, crony capitalism, corporatism, and even communism is fascist or not. In varying degrees, they are all fascist. Big Tech in the United States appears to be married to government, as we are now finding out. Therefore, by definition we are a fascist nation.
My point is back in the 1922s to the middle of 1930s, no one had any issue Mussolini's Party until he supported Germany. As scholars such as Robert O. Paxton and Sheri Berman have noted, Italian fascism did not emerge as a sui generis authoritarian ideology and, in the beginning, was not explicitly premised on extreme racism, in contrast to German National Socialism. This is what Ezra Pound knew, but as the tides changed to Europe and Italy at war, Pound did all he could to prevent the war from engulfing Europe. From the Italian point of view, it was the Anglo-Americans who were the aggressors. The intellectual Pound knew who was behind getting America into the war. This was his crime, when he named these culprits. He did so just as Benjamin Freedman had done.
You keep dropping a guilt-by-association as reason to throw down one of America's greatest writers. I won't ever do this for the same reason I won't throw down Mark Twain being a 'racist' or a Thomas Jefferson owning slaves. To me, it's a shallow attempt to tarnish a great historical figure who was ultimately correct about the causes of World War II.
Politics aside, I simply never saw much artistry or worth in Pound's poetry. There, I said it, not a very popular opinion among the literati, but it's mine.
Ezra Pound named the jew and was therefore unpersoned
The famous American poet had been convicted of treason for revealing in radio broadcasts that World War Two had been started by International Jewry to further its own ends of world domination. He was kept thirteen years in a lunatic asylum in a urine-soaked cell, originally in solitary confinement and forced to wear a straitjacket. Only much later was he allowed to receive visitors such as Mullins.
“Ezra Pound fought the Jews openly. And he suffered grievously as a consequence, spending thirteen years in a hideous, urine-soaked madhouse…”
Does this quote remind you of the present jailed J6-ers?
Yes, unfortunately.
Remember, Peter was persecuted by the Sanhedrin for years. He was imprisoned, tortured, and crucified. Now St Peter has the Keys of Heaven.
The keys are still here.
Was never a big fan of Pound.
HOWEVER, I, ironically, was introduced to him in High School and I can guarantee his writing went over my head. Strange that.
Glad you mentioned him; brings him back on the radar. Have a few books by, and about, him floating around in storage. Everything is pointing to me dusting off these tomes sometime in the near future.
WWG1WGA