Selected Poems of Ezra Pound (New Directions Paperbook) [Paperback]

Ezra Pound (Author)

Book Description

Series: New Directions Paperbook | Publication Date: January 17, 1957

Ezra Pound has been called "the inventor of modern poetry in English."

The verse and criticism which he produced during the early years of the twentieth century very largely determined the directions of creative writing in our time; virtually every major poet in England and America today has acknowledged his help or influence. Pound's lyric genius, his superb technique, and his fresh insight into literary problems make him one of the small company of men who through the centuries have kept poetry alive—one of the great innovators.

This book offers a compact yet representative selection of Ezra Pound's poems and translations. The span covered is Pound's entire writing career, from his early lyrics and the translations of Provençal songs to his English version of Sophocles' Trachiniae. Included are parts of his best known works—the Chinese translations, the sequence called Hugh Selwyn Mauberly, the Homage to Sextus Propertius. The Cantos, Pound's major epic, are presented in generous selections, chosen to emphasize the main themes of the whole poem.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. Whatever one might think of Pound's legacy--both political and poetical--there's practically no debate about the fact that in order to understand literature from modernism onward, Pound must be reckoned with. Until now, to get a concise but complete idea of Pound's oeuvre--spanning the mythy free verse of A Lume Spento (1908), which seeks "many a new thing understood" to the last, war-wracked cantos of the late 1960s, which plead, "let the Gods forgive what I/ have made"--was all but impossible, requiring the purchase of a thin, confusingly organized Selected Poems put together by Pound; a copy of Pound's selection and re-envisioning of his short poems, Personae; and another slim, oddly curated volume of selected Cantos. At last we have what we've needed for more than half a century: a career-spanning selection gathering all of Pound's major verse, offering both the academic and pleasure reader more than enough Pound to get them going. Sieburth, scholar, translator and editor of the Library of America volume of Pound's Poems and Translations, has removed the distortions of Pound's own preferences in favor of a long view of the high points of Pound's career, and included helpful notes and commentary. This will become the standard Pound. (Oct.)
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Review

“Starred Review. At last we have what we've needed for more than half a century: a career-spanning selection gathering all of Pound's major verse, offering both the academic and pleasure reader more than enough Pound to get them going.…This will become the standard Pound.” (Publishers Weekly ) --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 184 pages
• Publisher: New Directions (January 17, 1957)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0811201627
• ISBN-13: 978-0811201629
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.2 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #202,234 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #47 in Books > 4-for-3 Books > Literature & Fiction > Poetry > Single Authors > United States
  • #50 in Books > 4-for-3 Books > Literature & Fiction > World Literature > United States > Poetry

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent selection of Pound's poems, May 30, 2003

By 

Katie (Brooklyn, NY United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Selected Poems of Ezra Pound (New Directions Paperbook) (Paperback)

This book is a very good introduction to the work of Ezra Pound. There's a little bit of everything! You get some of his earlier, shorter poems, like "In a Station of the Metro," some translations, like "The Seafarer," or "Homage to Sextus Propertius," the famous Mauberley sequence (this book includes both the "original" poem "Hugh Selwyn Mauberley" and Pound's later poem "Mauberley" whereas most books reprint only the earlier poem), and, of course, some of the cantos.

I'm pretty sure that Pound made the selections for this edition himself, though the editor adds a few cantos. Ezra Pound's work is exciting and really important for poets writing today. It's impossible to see how we got to where we are now without reading Ezra Pound.

13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars ., December 30, 2004

By 

jjsnlee (Queens) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Selected Poems of Ezra Pound (New Directions Paperbook) (Paperback)

Hard to reconcile Ezra Pound the poet, with such a beautiful sense for the rhythms and melodies of the English language, and so sensitive to his time and place in the literary tradition, with the man who broadcast propaganda for the Italians during the Second World War, whose preference was for the Fascists because of their sense of style. Mishima also comes to mind, with impeccable aesthetics, totalitarian politics.

In any case if the politico-poetic schism doesn't bother you, this slim collection is a wonderful introduction to this important Modernist. His Cantos were overreaching and sprawling -- some of the poems here have the glint of lyric perfection. I am especially fond of the Cathay poems, and of those Exile's Letter is my favorite. His translation is crystalline, the words flow like water, of all his poems, translations or otherwise, I feel this is among the most perfect -- not for greatness of idea or emotion, but for its subtlety and lyricism.

He reaches such moments in parts of the Pisan Cantos ("What thou lovest well remains, the rest is dross"), but it's a bit funny that he had T.S. Eliot whittle down The Waste Land, but he himself didn't have the discipline to pare down his own work. This might be why his translations (The Seafarer, The River Merchant's Wife) seem to be more anthologized, and considered the more accessible portion of his work -- the limits of these poems were already in place, holding his ambition in check, thus allowing him to concentrate on the language, which he really did so well.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Epitome of Modern Poetry, March 6, 2000

By 

Jason Hayashi - See all my reviews

This review is from: Selected Poems of Ezra Pound (New Directions Paperbook) (Paperback)

Reading Ezra Pound is a remarkable experience. I find it amazing how attentive Ezra Pound is when it comes to the 'sound of poetry.' Reading his poems are aesthetically pleasing to the ear. It is consistent with his doctrine, "Behave as a good musician will do" when it comes to poetry. I find his translation of "River-merchant's Wife: A Letter" as one of the greatest highlight in modern poetry, along with many other poem included in this book.