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The Major Western Cultural Influences on the Incubating Process of Ezra Pound’S Early Poetics*

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The Major Western Cultural Influences on the Incubating Process of Ezra Pound’S Early Poetics* Journal of Literature and Art Studies, ISSN 2159-5836 April 2013, Vol. 3, No. 4, 213-223 D DAVID PUBLISHING The Major Western Cultural Influences on the Incubating Process of Ezra Pound’s Early Poetics* WEI Shu Beijing Information Science and Technology University, Beijing, China This paper intends to study Ezra Pound’s early poetics and his modernist poetry through a close research of the various elements in the shaping process of his poetics, and the significance and influence of his poetic thoughts on the American New Poetry Movement. It studies firstly the early translations and romantic lyrics of Pound, trying to demonstrate that part of the influence on his early poetics is from the Western traditional cultural inheritance and that the emphasis on musicality that Pound inherited from traditional forms of poetry turns out to be one of the major principles that Pound advocates in his early poetics; then it comes to the discussion of the new translation concepts and poetics in “The Seafarer” (1911), which is a great work Pound translated based on an Old English poem; next this paper will focus on the influence of Robert Browning’s dramatic monologues and Yeats’ Symbolism on Pound’s transition from subjectivity to objectivity. Keywords: Ezra Pound, early poetics, American New Poetry Movement Introduction Ezra Pound has been widely acknowledged as the founder and the most prolific and talented poet of modernist poetry. Research on Pound is conducted mainly in Western countries and most of the precious manuscripts and materials are enshrined in Western universities like Yale. The achievements in China are relatively small and immature. This is due partly to the misunderstanding and misinterpretation of his works or his other political activities and partly to the difficulties in comprehending his works. In order to better present the history and status of Poundian studies, this paper will discuss the diversified Western elements in the incubating process of Pound’s early poetics and the formation of his poetic style. Those elements range from the Provençal lyrical poems, Browning’s dramatic monologues, Yeats’ Symbolism, and Old English poems. Ezra Pound’s Early Translations, Romantic Lyrics, and Popular Ballads Like those literary careers begin with imitation, Ezra Pound also started with modeling on some previous masterpieces. From his university days to 1910, Pound wrote some lyrical poems, most of which were imitations based on his translations of Greek, Roman, Provençal lyric poems, minstrel or popular ballads, and Old English poems. Ezra Pound’s own publishing career began on November 8, 1902 with the short poem called “Ezra on * This study is funded by Beijing Information Science and Technology University (No. 1335021). WEI Shu, lecturer, School of Foreign Languages, Beijing Information Science and Technology University. 214 THE MAJOR WESTERN CULTURAL INFLUENCES ON THE INCUBATING PROCESS the Strike” in a local newspaper. It contains eight quatrains in imitation of James Whitcomb Riley in the voice of an old farmer on his way to town with hay who comments on the approach of Thanksgiving Day and the effects of a strike: Wal, Thanksgiving’ do be comin’ round./With the price of turkeys on the bound,/And Coal, by gum! Thet were just found,/Is surely getting’ cheaper./The winds will soon begin to howl,/And winter, in its yearly growl,/Across the medders begin to prowl,/And Jack Frost getting’ deeper. (Pound, 2003, p. 1149) This little poem shows Pound has a good sense of conventional lyrics at that time. And another little poem is also interesting. It has only four lines, rhyming abba, a typical ballad quatrain. It was written in late 1903 or early 1904. It was called “Motif” when first published in his first book A Lume Spento (1908) and retitled “Search” in Personae (1909) the following year: Through woodlands dim/Have I taken my way, And over silent waters, night and day/Have I sought the wee wind. (Pound, 2003, p. 55) And probably in 1904, Pound wrote the two short poems, “Song” and “To the Dawn: Defiance”, which were first published in A Lume Spento. These two poems are the best examples of showing the formation of the dream element which is important later. “Song” begins with “love thou thy dream” and ends with “dream alone can truly be/for ’tis in dreams I come to thee” (Pound, 2003, p. 54) while the other “To the Dawn: Defiance” similarly tells of a “dream”: “ye blood-red spears-men of the dawn’s array/my moated soul shall dream in your despite/a refuge for the vanquished hosts of night” (Pound, 2003, p. 53). At that time, Pound was still not very skillful in poetry writing and picking the right words, so he had to employ the worn-out word-patterns. His “Belangal Alba” translated from the Provençal lyrical poem, was published in the May 1905 issue of the Hamilton Literary Magazine: Dawn light, o’er aea and height, riseth bright,/Passeth vigil, clear shineth on the night. They be careless of the agates, delaying,/Whom the ambush glides to hinder Whom I warn and cry to, praying./“Arise!” (Stock, 1970, p. 45) This is a successful translation from which Pound has some basic sense of romantic spirit. It can be believed that such translations began modeling Pound’s early poetry and poetics. Of the five poems in A Lume Spento which appear to belong to 1905, two of them “Plotinus” and “Ballad for Gloom” move well enough, but the gap between his words and what he is trying to express is uncomfortably wide; he has had the experience but as yet lacks the means to turn it into genuine poetry. Two others of the five were successful and are rightly collected among the author’s shorter poems: “On His Own Face in a Glass” and “For E. McC.”. However, his later poem “The Cry of the Eyes”, which he began in 1905 and finished the following year, reflects Pound’s awakening of clarity and hardness in his verse; though it was coached in an artificial language, there is a quite delightful turn in some new poetic sense: Would feel the fingers of the wind/Upon these lids that lie over us/Sodden and lead-heavy. (Pound, 2003, p. 37) And at the same time, Pound began to follow a poetic rule, noticing the importance of the simplicity of style. The following sections are his practice of this style: THE MAJOR WESTERN CULTURAL INFLUENCES ON THE INCUBATING PROCESS 215 The yellow flame paleth/And the wax runs low./In this ever-flowing monotony/Of ugly print marks, black/Upon white parchment. (Pound, 2003, p. 37) It may have been as early as the spring of 1906 that he composed the 19 lines which appear in A Lume Spento under the title “Vana” and as the opening section of “Praise of Ysolt” in Personae and later collections: In vain have I striven/ To teach my heart to bow;/ In vain have I said to him/“These be many singers greater than thou”. (Pound, 2003, p. 40) They are still fresh in their contrasts of rhythm (for example, “in vain have I striven” against “in vain have I said to him”) and still worth reading for the way in which emphasis is brought to bear on a key word—on “greater”, for instance, in the line “there be many singers greater than thou”. With another poem “From Syria” (1906) which appears to belong to this period when he was not so lucky. Pound stated in the notes of the poem that “From Syria” is a translation of a song by Peire Bremon “Lo Tort” that he made for his Lady in Provença: In April when I see all through/Mead and garden new flowers blow,/And streams with ice-bands broken flow… To me, saying all in sorrow:/“Sweet friend, and what of me tomorrow?”/“Love mine, why wilt me so forsake?” (Pound, 2003, p. 95) It has all the vices of the young poet struck with admiration for a distant time and place, without any compensating virtues. It begins in April when “new flowers” blow in “mead and garden” progresses by way of “my love’s land” to “Syrian strand”, and ends with the news that he is “desirous” and “grief-filled”, his days “full long”, etc. During this time, Pound has translated some Provençal poems and modeled them for his own poems, among which the best one is a 55-line poem called “The Mourn of Life” (1906). Before Pound went to London, he had published some good poems, a poem titled as “A Dawn Song” and published early in the December 1906 issue of Munsey’s Magazine (New York) should be mentioned: God hath put me here/In earth’s goodly sphere/To sing the song of the day,/A strong, glad song,/If the road be long,/To me fellows in the way. (Pound, 2003, p. 1151) Although Pound never belongs to any religion, he seems a strong believer of god. But anyway it is no more than an ignorant worship of a young college student. “La Fraisne”, is particular among all the early poems, for although it is mannered and form-conscious, it does have a sense of freshness, in terms of conception rather than of language, and vitality of rhythm. These win it a place among his best work: She hath called me from mine old ways,/She hath hushed my rancour of council, Bidding me praise/Naught but the wind that flutters in the leaves. She hath drawn me from mine old ways,/Till men say that I am mad; But I have seen the sorrow of men, and am glad,/For I know that the wailing and bitterness are folly.
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