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Voices & Visions
Ezra Pound
The most controversial of American poets — artistic catalyst, legendary confidant, and author of brilliant cantos — Ezra Pound and his poetry and role in the modernist movement are explored by friends and critics.
Although admired for his contribution to poetry — among other things, he founded the imagist movement — Ezra Pound was also considered a controversial figure for his erratic personality and the political views he expressed during World War II. Pound saw the poet as a “guide and lamp of civilization,” and into his best-known work, the 800-page Cantos, he poured his knowledge of philosophy, economics, art, and history. However divided his critics, Pound’s bold theories and poetic experiments set the standards of modernism.
Additional Resources
Hear Pound’s own inimitable reading of “Canto I,” read other Pound poems, and find a brief Pound biography and a list of other helpful Pound links.
A haunting photograph of Pound in his later years greets you on Michael Eiichi Hishikawa’s Pound page. Hishikawa, an associate professor of American Literature, also presents a biography and an extensive bibliography of Pound criticism.
Did Pound contribute to the end of the Gutenberg era? Read Edwin J. Barton’s revealing article on Pound’s nine-year correspondence with Marshall McLuhan in the premiere issue of the University of Toronto’s McLuhan Studies.
