Poet, editor, and critic Ezra Pound was one of the most influential voices in twentieth-century poetry. He was a leader of the Imagist movement, which stressed clarity of image and metaphor, and he attempted to help free poetic writing from forced style and rhetoric. The Cantos were Pound's most ambitious poetic project. He began writing this series of poems in 1913 and continued to work on them until his death. These complex and lyrical incantations explore the writer's disappointment in the imperfection of man, his hatred of war, and commercialism, and his ongoing interest in economic concerns.
This recording offers the writer's dramatic reading of Cantos XLV, LI, and the second half of Canto LXXVI, as well as his performance of poems titled "The Gypsy" and "The Exiles Letter". Pound's ideas and searing vision are beautifully showcased in this recording.
Portions of this landmark recording were made at St. Elizabeth's Hospital in Washington, DC, where Pound was held after he was accused of treason, but judged to be of sound mind to stand trial.
