Ezra Pound's Poem The Cantos
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In The Cantos Ezra Pound wrote a poem in which he tried to include the whole world. He used many languages, ideas from many traditions, and quotations from some of the greatest works of literature. In the first group of poems, which are called A Draft of XXX Cantos, Pound begins with Greek literature and goes to Chinese philosophy and then to nineteenth-century economic ideas. Canto I is about Odysseus and his men who are involved in one of their adventures from Homer's Odyssey, the ancient Greek poem that was the first work of European literature. Canto XIII deals with a conversation between the Chinese philosopher Kung (another way of saying Confucius) and some of his followers. The teachings, or sayings, of Confucius are the basis of a whole way of thinking and believing in many parts of Asia. Canto XIX is set in modern times and the narrator and an American businessman talk about Karl Marx and money and modern business. If the parts of this very long poem are looked at separately, they might seem to be about completely unrelated subjects. Pound's attempt to include the whole world in his poem meant that he had to build connections between all these different parts. By studying these three cantos it is possible to see how he did this by giving every idea its own particular voice. In all thirty cantos the tone and the manner of speaking are very important. The backgrounds and cultures of the characters in the poems are expressed in how they speak as much as in w
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correctly?" (58). But Kung answers that they had all given correct answers because each one wanted to do what his individual nature led him to do.
Kung stresses that everyone must do something with his life and all the things his friends had proposed meet his two conditions: "'order' and "'brotherly deference'" (59). Order in the defences, order in the province, orderly religious observances, and the order of music are all activities that Kung approves. He does not worry about accomplishing things in order to get a good place in the "life after death". He says it is easy to aim for that life while neglecting this life. It is accomplishing something in this life that is difficult. But Kung sees a problem with people. He said at the beginning that "'we are unknown'" and he meant that we do not know or understand ourselves. Kung remembers that historians "left blanks in their writings. I mean for things they didn't know" (60). But, he says that was in the past. He implies that people are making the mistake of believing that they know themselves. He tries to explain their mistake to them. But it is as easy as trying to keep the "blossoms of the apricot . . . from falling" (60).
In Canto XIX the narrator is telling abo
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Approximate Word count = 2992
Approximate Pages = 12 (250 words per page)
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