Scarica EZRA POUND APPUNTI E ANALISI POESIA e più Appunti in PDF di Inglese solo su Docsity! EZRA POUND He is the major exponent of imagism, which is an Anglo-American poetic movement. The movement had a very short life (1909-1917) but it still produced many anthologies. It had a theorist: Hulme, an English poet. The word “imagist” was invented by Ezra Pound (American). The imagist poets produced a manifesto in 1913 in which we find the major aims and features of the movement: Use of common speech language, but with precision Creation of new rhythms, use of free verse Complete freedom in the choice of the subject matter The use of precise, clear and concentrated imagery He was American, but he lived in Europe for most of his life, had mental issues (anche manicomio), he had a phase in which he was close to fascism, later he distanced himself from those ideologies but it he still gets associated with them. (casa pound) ___ “E. P. ode pour l’election de son sepulchre”___ scheda This extract comes from a long poem called “Hugh Selwyin Mauberley”. The poem was published in 1920 and it is about the economic, political, cultural evils of England after the war. It’s a poem formed of 18 parts (poems) and the title refers to an imaginary poet (Hugh) who is used by Ezra to express his personal opinion and feelings about his position as poet. The first 13 poems are presented through the initials E. P. (even though he never admitted it was him, they are associated with his initials) who is a persona through which the poet expressed his literary ambitions. Poems 14-18 Ezra Pound fuses with the imaginary poet of the poem. Before the first poem, we have the subtitle “life and contacts” which was used for conventional literary biographies. “ode pour… sepulchre” is a line from a well known french poet of the 16 th century, Pierre de Ronsard- 16th century). Here, the quotation is ironic, because he talks about E. P. as if he was famous, but he wasn’t. In the 1st stanza he explains his initial poetic life ambitions, the initial strove to resuscitate the dead art of poetry. This is also an allusion to Dante’s purgatorio “me qui la morta poesia resurga”. This ambition was impossible to be fulfilled. “half savage country”: he refers to the USA, a country that’s not educated, and doesn’t possess a real culture. He uses a metaphor to explain it better: cities= poetry, acorn=USA. Poeta deciso a spremere gigli da una ghianda: it’s impossible to be understood by such a country, when they don’t have the mental capacity to understand poetry. “Capaneus”: Eschilus was killed during the attack. He stands for the rebel, and stands up against power. “Greek”: this is a quotation from the Odyssey: “we known everything that comes from Troy”. The only one who was able to resist the mermaid’s song was Ulisses, but here the poet has been caught by her. He doesn’t have the power Ulisses had. In the 3rd quatrain E. P. explains his enthusiasm for his poetic models (homer, ancient Greek poetry) which was defeated by his cultural background (explained in the 2 quatrain). 4th quatrain: refers to poetic models: Flaubert (symbol of precision), Great Britain (hostile place), classic poetry. Last stanza: we are shown the results of the poet’s effort: he was simply forgotten. French: from the testament of Francois Villande, a poet who was vanished by his country and then disappeared at age 30. He didn’t add anything to poetry, this poet is doomed to a complete failure. Even if the poem sounds strange Ezra Pound gives his view of the poet’s role in modern society. 1st stanza: talks about the futility of reviving poetry in the modern age
