Customer Reviews

The Pound Era

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For years I didn't get Pound, and I once asked a friend if the Emperor had no clothes. "No, but to get Pound you have to become Pound," she said. That remains one of the truest things I've heard about Pound, and about the modern poetic he inspired. From the brave spirits who hope to apprehend his writing, Pound demands a total commitment to his manner of thinking, his myriad languages, his vast reading, his eccentric economic/social theories, his storehouse of memories, and the evolution of his ideas over nearly a century. What he brought to poetry was the idea that poems aren't ornamented expressions of deep feeling, but precise instruments for exploring politics, religion, history, economics, science and just about everything human.

Hugh Kenner came closer to being Pound than anyone (though Peter Makin gives him a good run for his money), and "The Pound Era" isn't so much a work of literary criticism as it is an intricate daybook, or maybe a modern novel, on coming to terms with the demands Pound makes on a reader. It's a one-of-a-kind study that should be read and re-read by anyone even half-interested in Pound's achievement. But it also (to my mind at least) shares some of the Master's flaws as Kenner makes great, sometimes showy, occasionally mannered paratactic leaps between seemingly unrelated details to convey a picture of Pound's age. It's well worth looking past the stylistic excesses though for Kenner's unparalleled explication of one of the best known and least understood 20th-century poets.

This is an impressive read. I came to it at just the right time in my life. I had been reading the poems of Marianne Moore and Buckminster Fuller as well as studying Ancient Greek. This is a dense but ultimately very rewarding book. It incorporates passages of troubadour lyric and Greek and name-drops a lot of historical characters with which you may or may not be familiar. For those interested in Pound and his times, I highly recommend it. For those unsure, check out the excerpts that Amazon provides. This is not everyone's cup of tea. But, as I said, I came to this at the right time in my life.

What's all the fuss about cranky ol' Ezra Pound? This may answer that question. It may also be the finest piece of literary criticism in the language, the best work of a man who is not merely a critic of the modernist writers, but a great modernist himself. No one who loves 20th Century poetry, fiction and visual art should miss this book.

Parts of this book will boggle most first-time readers, being liberally strewn with allusions and complex cross-references. But persistence is well worth it; sample "The Invention of China" or "Words Set Free" to see some of the most beautiful studies of poetry and poetic translation ever done. I cannot recommend this book highly enough. It brings the discussion of literature to an entirely different level, abandoning "analysis" for a poetic, transcendental inquiry. A must read.

I come back to this book again and again. It combines a historical survey of the Modernist period with one of the best readings of Ezra Pound I've come across. And Kenner's own style is insurpassable for his subject.

An essential read for anyone interested in the period and its writers. And a book that will change the way you read and feel about poetry. Just wonderful.

Would that we all had "readers" as sympathetic as Kenner is to Pound. I've returned to this book and learned something new each time. Its importance cannot be underestimated. Simply amazing.

A footnote: The Fine Arts Museum at the Legion of Honor here in SF had a few years ago an exhibit of Modern Sculpture, including the Hierartic Head. It was the highlight of the year.

Intimidated by Pound's Cantos, I picked up Kenner's book in hopes of a pony. In fact, there are more text specific companions (see my other reviews) but this work provides a fascinating, invaluable overview of the modernists and their work. From the opening encounter with Henry James to Pound's last days in New Jersey and Italy, Kenner walks by the poet's side through the Cantos and his career. The sections on Wyndham Lewis, Buckminster Fuller, Clifford Douglas, and T. S. Eliot are illuminating, but so are the explorations of more obscure writers like Ernest Fenellosa, Guido Cavalcanti, and Henri Gaudier. The author's knowledge of the world, like Pound's, seems almost limitless. Readers looking for nods to contemporary literary theory may be disappointed since there's little queer, feminist, Marxist, or Lacanian critique, but as a conventional and weighty glimpse at influences and allusions in the Cantos, it's excellent. Reading Kenner is probably a lot like being in a lecture class with him. However dull it may be on the cutting edge, the sheer glare of brilliance and erudition leaves you dazzled and eager to go the original source for more light.

This is simply one of the greatest, if not the greatest, works of intellectual history ever written anywhere at anytime by anyone. The breadth of his knowledge is breathtaking. This is erudition without pretense or snobbery. You don't just come to know Pound, you become Pound and live in his world. By no means easy, but in every way worth the effort. Truly a masterpiece. Get it. Read it. Enjoy it.

You are about to take American Literature, prescribed US high school class, and I doubt if you will come across Pound, but he is important. However what you need to know now is that if, like me, a 19 in 1954, thinking you can read and understand just about anything you set your mind to, taking a volume of Pound's poems to the beach for several afternoons will no do it. It is this kind of book, actually by a man who was a student of his subject, knew him for 20 years, who then wrote to place him in context (with some useful and surprising photographs interspersed) may help you get started. So far I have just sampled THIS book and find it tough sledding. Will I really be able to read Pound's own verse later, or will I want to do so ?

Stay tuned.

There are many Pound scholars today and many of them are very good, however, in my opinion Hugh Kenner is one of the most creative thinkers of his time. This volume is a very well put together, accessible and reference point for all of Pound's wonderful, but difficult referenced work.