Comments on: Pound’s “Hugh Selwyn Mauberly”

By: Chris

Chris — Sun, 16 Dec 2007 20:55:50 +0000

It is greek “For we know all that was suffered in Troy” It’s a line from Homer’s Odyssey. When they reprint this poem they should start putting this in the margin, The poem flows better when you don’t have to know greek to read it.

By: 45454

45454 — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 17:05:47 +0000

what does “Idmen gar toi panth, os eni Troie mean

By: Nikolai

Nikolai — Sat, 06 Oct 2007 10:47:02 +0000

A joke’s not quite as funny if one must have it explained; an obscure allusion or a phrase in an unfamiliar language can really stop dead a poem’s music and argument if it can’t be either easily comprehended by the reader or at least skirted entirely. Yes, if one wishes to dissect and pickle every line of the poetry, one may enjoy running to Google, the OED and whatever encyclopaedias of symbols, mythology and so forth one favours.

Pound was sharp enough to know that he’d thicken and embitter his poetry on the tongue of the casual reader by doing what he’s done here… This is certainly evidence that Pound tried to write for “the initiated” and not for hoi polloi.

For those of us whose knowledge of Greek extends little beyond the term “hoi polloi”, Pound rather ruins the music with too much… intellectual snobbery, I suppose.

By: nemaf

nemaf — Thu, 23 Aug 2007 14:26:51 +0000

This is the age of google and the internet, sport … if you don’t know what’s being quoted, then just search it, it takes no more than a few seconds. Otherwise stick to nursery rhymes.