Ezra Pound埃兹拉庞德.ppt

1、Ezra Pound (18851972),Historic Position,A leading spokesman of the “Imagist Movement”,One of the most influential American poets and critic,The father of the American modern poetry,1.Life 2.Works 3.Point of view 4.Style 5.contribution,Ezra Pound,1.Life Experience(1885-1972),Born in Hailey,Idoho in 1

2、885. Met William Carlos Williams and Hilda Dolittle at the University of Pennsylvania Sailed for Europe in 1908. Came into contact with Hulme and his Poets Club. Appointed himself foreign editor of Poetry,From 1913 began his study of the Chinese language and ancient Chinese culture. In 1914, abandon

3、ed imagism in favor of Vorticism; got married. During W.W. I, assisted young writers In 1924 moved to Italy and became involved in Fascist politics, broadcasting over Radio Rome against allies.,In 1945, returned to America and was arrested on charge of treason. In 1946, acquitted, and declared insan

4、e. In 1958, released from St. Elizabeths Hospital in Washington. In 1972, died in Venice a recluse.,2.Works Cathay The Cantos 117 poems; the substructure is Homeric; it has a direct relationship with Divine Comedy: the title of the poem; the tripartite structure and its number of about 100 poems;, t

5、he authors “intellectual diary since 1915”; a poets attempt to impose order and meaning upon a chaotic and meaningless world through art; he sees in Chinese history and the doctrine of Confucius a source of strength and wisdom with which to counterpoint Western gloom and confusion.,Features: (1) Lan

6、guage: intricate and obscure (2) Theme: complex subject matters (3) Form: no fixed framework, no central theme, no attention to poetic rules Hugh Selwyn Mauberley his best poem; 2 parts, the 1st part: the quest of an artist in an unresponsive world; the 2nd part: a similar quest but it has taken on

7、a new dimension of meaning;, the narrator is Odysseus-Pound; commercialization and debasement of art, about the feeling of frustration and failure on the part of the artist, and about the poet himself, who “out of key with his time, / strove to resuscitate the dead art / Of poetry”; a painful record

8、 of the growth of Pound as a poet,3. Point of View (1) The artist was morally and culturally the arbiter and the “savior” of the race, he took it upon himself to purify the arts and became the prime mover of a few experimental movements, the aim of which was to dump the old into the dustbin and brin

9、g forth something new. (2) To him life was sordid personal crushing oppression, and culture produced nothing but “intangible bondage”.,(3) Pound sees in Chinese history and the doctrine of Confucius a source of strength and wisdom with which to counterpoint Western gloom and confusion. (4) He saw a

10、chaotic world that wanted setting to rights, and a humanity, suffering from spiritual death and cosmic injustice, that needed saving. He was for the most part of his life trying to offer Confucian philosophy as the one faith which could help to save the West.,4. Style: very difficult to read Pounds

11、early poems are fresh and lyrical. The Cantos can be notoriously difficult in some sections, but delightfully beautiful in others. Few have made serious study of the long poem; fewer, if anyone at all, have had the courage to declare that they have conquered Pound; and many seem to agree that The Ca

12、ntos is a monumental failure. 5. Contribution He has helped, through theory and practice, to chart out the course of modern poetry.,Ezra Pound is generally considered the poet most responsible for defining (characterizing) and promoting a modernist artistic poetry. In the early twentieth century, he opened an influential exchange of work and ideas between British and American writers, and was famous for the generosity.,His own significant contributions to poetry begin with his promulgation (spread) of Imagism,