Ezra Pound (full name, Ezra Weston Loomis Pound) was an American poet
and critic, born on 30 October 1885, in Hailey, Idaho Territory. He is best
known for being one of the major figures of the early modernist movement, as
well as for his promotion of Imagism.
While in London, Ezra Pound used to work daily in the British Museum
Reading Room, where he met curator and poet Laurence Binyon, who was
responsible for introducing him to the East Asian artistic and literary
concepts that would later come to influence his imagery and technique so
greatly. Pound then took major interest in traditional Japanese waka verse, a
10th century poetry genre which emphasized economy and strict conventions, believed
to have contributed to Imagist composition techniques. Through his translation
work, the author realized that the problem with his earlier poems, which he
wished to move away from, laid in his use of the English language.
Thus, Pound and fellow poets Hilda Doolittle and Richard Aldington began
working on ideas about language and structure that would become the Imagist
movement. Their goal was to achieve clarity, by means of getting rid of
abstraction, romanticism, rhetoric, inversion of word order, and over-use of
adjectives in their literary works, for they believed these techniques took
away from the real essence of poetry. Finally, they came up with three basic
principles which made up Imagism: “the direct treatment of the ‘thing’ whether
subjective or objective, to use absolutely no word that does not contribute to
the presentation, and as regarding rhythm, to compose in the sequence of the
musical phrase, not in sequence of a metronome.”
The trio rejected superfluous words, especially adjectives, and Pound
held to the belief that abstract images and concrete objects should not be
mixed. One of the best examples of Imagist poetry is his poem “In a Station
of the Metro”, which was inspired by an experience he had in the metro in
Paris, and which Pound worked on for a year, finally being able to reduce it to
the essence of a Japanese haiku, which we will analyze.
Challenge to our fellow colleagues:
Another poem we selected
for analysis was the one posted below, which is a clear example of Ezra Pound's
Imagism. We would like you all to read it, think about it's possible meaning(s)
and feel free to share our opinion. All interpretations will be taken into
consideration and added to the information we already possess.
Keep in mind Pound's
three principles of Imagism, which are:
1. Direct treatment
of the "thing" whether subjective or objective.
2. To use absolutely
no word that does not contribute to the presentation.
3. As regarding
rhythm: to compose in the sequence of the musical phrase, not in sequence of a
metronome.
"A girl"
The tree
has entered my hands,
The sap
has ascended my arms,
The tree
has grown in my breast -
Downward,
The
branches grow out of me, like arms.
Tree you
are,
Moss you
are,
You are
violets with wind above them.
A child -
so high - you are,
And all
this is folly to the world.
Hello I have made an analysis of the poem (I do not know if it corresponds to what you are asking for). Here it goes:
ResponderEliminarA girl is a metaphor of a person becoming an inanimate object. We can say that it explains a girl's transformation (a person who was weak in the past had become strong in the present/future).
On the first stanza the poetic subject tells us part of her transformation, so the reader can follow the proces.
However on the second stanza we have a different voice, a third person teller. A person who describes how the girl is after the transformation.
In this poem we do not have rhymes nor adjectives.
I have found this website that has an interesting analysis of the poem, as it compares the poem to the myth of Apollo and Daphne.
http://www.dantealighierithedivinecomedy.com/2011/11/poetry-analysis-girl-by-ezra-pound.html
Carla A. P. Neves 44434
When I read the poem, the first thing that came to mind was Death. And, quoting The Lion King, "When we die, our bodies become the grass, and the antelopes eat the grass. And so we are all connnected in the great Circle of Life."
ResponderEliminarThe poem emphasizes how everything is connected, that death is not the end, but a part of a cycle, like we said in class. So the body rots and feeds nature, giving life to new beings, in a perfect circle. "And all this is folly to the world"
Luís Pires - 46654
TITLES
ResponderEliminarYou underline or write in italics a title of a novel, a book, a movie, a work of art. You put in between brackets the title of poems, short stories and essays (without italicizing it).
In terms of STRUCTURE, avoid repeating information in this kind of brief presentation.
You have decided to focus on the first part of Pound's literary career, but on your ORAL PRESENTATION make sure you make a reference to its whole spam, especially taking into account that Imagism was later changed into Vorticism.
Also, make sure you explore the image here presented with the poem.
Reading the poem, especially the first three lines of the first stanza, and taking the title into consideration, what came to my mind was the author is talking about his daughter. When he says "The tree has entered my hands" on the first line, he could be referencing the first time he touched his daughter. On the second line, when he says "The sap has ascended my arms," I think he means how he held/hugged his daughter. "The tree has grown in my breast" reminds me of when a parent holds his child to his/her breast and the love that grows within. I believe he then goes on to talk about how, eventually, as the child grows, it will gradually move away from the parent, as children usually do once they start being self reliant. The child who grows though, despite moving away from the parents, will always be a part of them, and on lines 6 and 7 I think the author references that, reminds us that tree and moss it is, meaning it is from it's mother and father. The last 3 lines of the poem, I believe, is mentioning the faults this child can have, that it is not perfect, but the author though, he is proud of her flaw.
ResponderEliminarSamanta Mello - 48753
Reading the poem you posted, I also think that it is about his daughter or some important girl in his life, because as you mentioned, a Pound's principle of Imagism is the direct treatment of the "thing" whether subjective or objective.(Though when I started to read it came to my mind that this "girl" could be a lover, maybe his wife).
ResponderEliminar"The tree has entered my hands,
The sap has ascended my arms,
The tree has grown in my breast" in these three lines is suggested the first interaction with the girl that the author is referring. About the rest of the poem, as our colleague Samanta said (and I agree with her) it's referring the growth of the child but in spite of leaving and moving on with his/her life, he/she will always be loved by the parents. "Tree you are,/Moss you are,/You are violets with wind above them"
"Tree you are,/Moss you are" as the mother and father.
Liliana Pascual nº 46664
Also, check Ernest Francisco Fenollosa's influence on Pound's interest in Far Eastern Literature and Art.
ResponderEliminar