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Hugh Selwyn Mauberley is said to be a farewell to London, but not a farewell to English poetry or a farewell to America, as Pound keeps writing poems in Eng- lish as an American poet. In this essay, I would like to re-identify Ezra Pound as an American poet, by discussing a number of American features before, and in, Hugh Selwyn Mauberley (Life and Contacts). The following is a quotation from a famous letter of Robert Frost in which he re- veals his perplexity at Pound s review of his book in the magazine Poetry , Decem- ber. From the viewpoint of Frost, Pound left America in anger, and came to London to make a ridiculous row about anything trivial with anybody in London; he is an American refugee, an exile for life, and disloyal to the United States:
I fear I am going to suffer a good deal at home by the support of Pound. The harm he does lies in this: he made up his mind in the short time I was friends with him (we quarreled in six weeks) to add me to his party of American literary refugees in London. Nothing could be more unfair, nothing better calculated to make me an exile for life. Another such review as the one in Poetry and I shan t be admitted at Ellis Island. This is no joke. Since the article
Shinji Watanabe
Ezra Pound as an American Poet:
A Re-examination of Hugh Selwyn Mauberley
was published I have been insulted and snubbed by two American editors I counted on as good friends. I don t repine and I am willing to wait for justice. But I do want someone to know that I am not a refugee and I am not in anyway disloyal. My publishing a book in England was as it happened. Several editors in America had treated me very well ... It was not in anger that I came to Eng- land ... Pound is trying to drag me into his ridiculous row with everybody over there .... I would have no pleasure in that part of Pound s article in Poetry that represented me as an American literary refugee in London with a grievance against American editors. (Frost - )
These words show one clear difference between Frost and Pound: Frost cared about the American editors, as he wanted to go back home, while Pound never cared about anything but art, beauty, and an intense life. Frost fears rejection, and he pays attention to what other Americans think of him. It seems that he needs support from others in order to maintain his self-confidence. We can say that the difference between Pound and Frost corresponds to the dif- ference between two American Presidents, Woodrow Wilson and Warren G. Hard- ing. Wilson was an idealist, spent a lot of energy on foreign affairs, and proposed the League of Nations, while Harding was conservative with affable manners, and subscribed to such strategies as make no enemies and America first (Russell f., Harding). Woodrow Wilson led America during World War I and presented missionary goals to the world, but after the war, Americans preferred to live rather by themselves, tending to reject both the League of Nations and the treaty of Ver- sailles, and the United States made a separate peace treaty with Germany. It seems that Wilson and Harding represent totally different tendencies in America. Pound was like Wilson, someone who never gave up his mission, though we know that Pound didn t like him (Ruthven ); while Frost was like Harding, who loved friendship, not quarrelling, and felt comfortable with fellows at home. We know that the American sense of mission originates from the Puritans, for they came to North America in order to establish a religiously safe and free coun- try; that is, their mission was to establish a nation that guarantees freedom and in- dividual human rights. The following quotation is from John Winthrop s A Modell of Christian Charity :
Whether in a good sense or not, American poets seem unusual from the view- points of other countries, because they try to accomplish some poetical mission, like missionaries. Here we can refer especially to Whitman, as he and Pound be- lieve in the arts and literature as the governing power of the people:
View d, to-day, from a point of view sufficiently over-arching, the problem of humanity all over the civilized world is social and religious, and is to be finally met and treated by literature. The priest departs, the divine literatus comes. Never was anything more wanted than, to-day, and here in the States, the poet of the modern is wanted, or the great literatus of the modern. ... Above all previous lands, a great original literature is surely to become the justification and reliance, (in some respects the sole reliance) of American democracy. ( Democratic Vistas )
Pound also insists on the importance of artists as rulers: We artists who have been so long the despised are about to take over control ( The New Sculpture, ). What Pound really wanted may be a society that would pay respect to artists as unique individuals. Whitman intended to establish a Democratic Kingdom of Literature. The expression sounds self-contradictory, but Whitman was actually dreaming of a kingdom where literature has authority and governs the people democratically. Whitman still believes in democracy, or the American cause, while expecting a strong leader. For Whitman, Democracy and America are convertible words ( Democratic Vistas ). On the other hand, Pound s intention was to establish a kingdom of beauty where the arts prevail not as commodities but in a spiritual sense, and where wise men govern the people, somewhat like Confucius, who dreamed of an ideal po- litical system for China. Accordingly, neither Whitman nor Pound maintained the principle of art for art s sake; both believed in art for life s sake. Pound made a comment on Whitman, as he knew he was in the same line with Whitman:
He is America. His crudity is an exceeding great stench (= bad smell), but it is America .... He is disgusting. He is an exceedingly nauseating pill, but he accomplishes his mission.
I honor him for he prophesied me while I can only recognize him as a fore- bear of whom I ought to be proud. (What I Feel)
Here is another example of Pounds recognition of Whitman in a poem titled The Pact, :
It was you that broke the new wood, Now is a time for carving. We have one sap and one root - Let there be commerce between us. (-)
This poem declares that Pound will inherit the mission Whitman tried to accom- plish, and the sense of heritage is strengthened as we read the following quotation from Emerson about the tree of the poet:
Nature never became a toy to a wise spirit. The fl owers, the animals, the mountains, reflected the wisdom of his best hour, as much as they had de- lighted the simplicity of his childhood. When we speak of nature in this manner, we have a distinct but most poetical sense in the mind. We mean the integrity of impression made by manifold natural objects. It is this which distinguishes the stick of timber of the wood- cutter, from the tree of the poet. (Emerson)
The crucial difference between Whitman and Pound lies, as the previous quo- tation suggests, in the issue of democracy. Whitman believes in democracy, but Pound believes that it is a political system that deceives the people; Pound says, He [the artist] has dabbled in democracy and he is now done with that folly (The New Sculpture ). Another crucial difference between Whitman and Pound concerns the subject matter of poetry. For Whitman, the American poet should write about Nature in America, about its democracy and its people: The Americans of all nations at any time upon the earth, have probably the fullest poetical nature. The United States themselves are essentially the greatest poem ( Preface). For Pound, however,
Pound also appreciates Henry James: there was emotional greatness in Henry James hatred of tyranny (Literary Essays - ). Different from James, how- ever, Pound was a poet, and he maintained an American dream with the theme of beauty. Pound felt that he did not have the choice of returning to American poetry, as it had no rich tradition. Only Whitman could be considered part his poetic ancestry, but for Pound, Whitman is out of consideration, as he does not belong a high cul- ture. How could Pound find a dependable poetic tradition? The history of poetry gives him many hints, many good examples of what to write, or how to write. He intends to join the long tradition of poetry. In other words, we may rather that say Pound was lost in tradition. Pound is to be original in the peculiar sense of seeking no originality: Pound s quotations and allusions to other poets are unique. The following is from the last lines of Homage to Sextus Propertius, in which Pound declares that Propertius was one of the great poets in the tradition of love poems. It suggests that Pound himself wishes just such a place in the history of poetry:
Of Lesbia, known above Helen; And in the dyed pages of Calvus, Calvus mourning Quintilia, And but now Gallus had sung of Lycoris. Fair, fairest Lycoris --- The waters of Styx poured over the wound: And now Propertius of Cynthia, taking his stand among these. (XII, - )
The most important theme in Pound s poetics is beauty: The love of beauty, he [Pound] wrote elsewhere, when it is a great passion, burns away our meaner qualities, our lesser selves, leaving the soul nothing save as a channel for truth, or beauty (Moody ). Moody s comments may imply that Edgar Allan Poe was a precursor of Pound in regard to the theme of beauty in American poetry, though Poe s beauty seems queer, eccentric, and supernatural.
Now I will focus on Hugh Selwyn Mauberley: Life and Contacts (Personae).
Hugh Selwyn Mauberley puzzles readers with its complicated logic, but to criti- cize a blind society and frivolous artists is a theme expressed through mentions, suggestions, and allusions of literary, poetical, and/or mythical words, phrases, and images quoted from many cultures. Hugh Selwyn Mauberley really stands up as a kind of storage house of poetic memories: Latin memory ( Nemesianus, pro domo, ... ), French memory ( Pierre Ronsard, Flaubert, ... ), Greek mem- ory ( Odysseus, Penelope, ... ), Christian memory ( Christ, St. Luke, wa- fer, ... ), and of course English memory ( Caliban, Waller, ... ). But can we find American memory, or American reference? I believe that Hugh Selwyn Mauber- ley has a stock of American memory as he re-identified himself as an American poet in, and after, the Great War; first, because American poetry is a major stream of English poetry in which Pound is set in and to which he never says farewell; second, because he declared, I made a pact with you-- Walt Whitman ; and finally, because we know that Pound said that Hugh Selwyn Mauberley is an attempt to condense the James novel. The first question about Hugh Selwyn Mauberley : why does it have two parts? The fi rst part has thirteen poems, and the second part Mauberley ( ) has five poems. Is the second part a commentary on and an extension of the first part? We know that both parts share the same themes and many of the same keywords. The themes include a failed poet, the cheapness of the age, disregard for the high arts in the contemporary age, and the obsession with making money. Both parts also share keywords: three years, sea, Flaubert, the age, Greece, reveries, gaze, Beauty, Venus, and eye(s). Yet the two parts should be considered as different works, for different speakers narrate them from different viewpoints. However, it seems difficult to decide who is narrating each poem. Critics have dif- ferent opinions as to who the speakers are, and what the objects or targets in each poem are. For example, Espey says:
This reading ... moves from Pound (Ode - V) through Pound s and Mauber- ley s contacts (Yeux Glauques - XII) to the disappearance of Pound (Envoi), and the independent emergence of Mauberley (Mauberley - III), with Pound acting now, at least on the surface, only as a tolerant observer, and concludes with Mauberley s single poem (Medallion). ( )
The following seems to be a criticism of quasi-arts as commodities and the age s ignorance of real beauty:
The tea-rose tea-gown, etc. Supplants the mousseline of Cos, The pianola replaces Sappho s barbitos. (III, - )
We cannot say that the pianola, or the player piano, was invented in America, but surely it was mass produced in America and sold there. το kαλόν should be beauty itself, but it is a brand name for perfume. The Tokalon, a perfume company of New York City & Paris France, originally a British To-Kalon established before , opened a large branch in Syracuse, NY in to sell the vintage perfume tokalon (Hummel):
We see το kαλόν Decreed in the market place .......... .......... We have the press for wafer; Franchise for circumcision. (III, - )
As the poet criticizes the contemporary market place which regards beauty as merely a commodity, the phrase the press for wafer, which has puzzled many critics, may be interpreted this way: the press is a machine to mould and produce wafers, and it implies that even religion is subject to the American way of mass production, just like the automobiles made by Ford. The next phrase Franchise for circumcision also refers to the American way of selling under the franchise to monopolize circumcision. Faun s flesh is not to us (III, ) suggests that the modern age disregards real beauty, which may correspond with a paragraph in Hawthorne s Marble Faun , a novel set in Rome:
The young man laughed, and threw himself into the position in which the statue has been standing for two or three thousand years. In truth, allowing
for the difference of costume, and if a lion s skin could have been substituted for his modern talma, and a rustic pipe for his stick, Donatello might have figured perfectly as the marble Faun, miraculously softened into flesh and blood. ( The Marble Faun )
Pound s context suggests that physical, organic, and human senses are lost in the American marketplace. They are all inhuman and lack substantial sense. Ameri- cans may no longer have the chance to feel flesh and blood, even in the arts. Actually that s what the German poet Rainer Maria Rilke was concerned about in a letter dated November , :
Even for our grandparents a house, a well, a familiar tower, their very clothes, their coat: were infinitely more, infinitely more intimate; almost ev- erything a vessel in which they found the human and added to the store of the human. Now, from America, empty indifferent things are pouring across, sham things, dummy life ... A house, in the American sense, an American apple or a grapevine over there, has nothing in common with the house, the fruit, the grape into which went the hopes and reflections of our forefathers... Live things, things lived and conscient of us, are running out and can no lon- ger be replaced. We are perhaps the last still to have known such things. (Letters - )
It seems that Pound prophesizes the coming market capitalism that will bring down everything, even sublime things, reducing them to price tags that indicate their supposed value. Who is a knave or an eunuch in the following passage?
All men, in law, are equals. Free of Pisistratus, We choose a knave or an eunuch To rule over us. (III, - )
A knave or an eunuch could be Osmond, Isabel s husband, in Portrait of a Lady ,
Positively speaking from the viewpoint of Pound, the imagery in poems should bring some reforming sense, and poets should make some immediate applica- tion as to the relation of the state to the individual.
Why Did Pound leave London? I believe that there are at least two reasons. First, Pounds impatience to reach a goal may have caused confl icts on every occasion. Moody describes this tendency as American drive: Pounds combining a love of beauty with American drive would later perplex his English Hosts (Moody ). Second, almost all the people seemed a mass of dolts to Pound, especially those who speak English may have irritated Pound. The poem, To Whistler, American, written in , directly refers to the American people, but looking back from now, the words that mass of dolts may allude to all people: You and Abe Lincoln from that mass of dolts/ Show us theres chance at least of winning through ( - ). After , Pound was to think more about what America is and what he has to do with America. Especially in Cantos, he chose American history as one of its impor- tant themes. The following is from From CXV, which, written in his last years, surely refers to American literature:
And of man seeking good, doing evil. In meiner Heimat where the dead walked and the living were made of cardboard. (-)
The phrase the dead walked reminds us of Jones Verys sonnet, The Dead, and the phrase the living were made of cardboard seems to allude to famous words of Ahab in Chapter , Moby-Dick:
I SEE them crowd on crowd they walk the earth Dry, leafless trees no Autumn wind laid bare; (-)
Hark ye yet again- the little lower layer. All visible objects, man, are but as pasteboard masks. But in each event- in the living act, the undoubted deed-
there, some unknown but still reasoning thing puts forth the mouldings of its features from behind the unreasoning mask. If man will strike, strike though the mask! (Melville)
And meiner Heimat refers to America. Poetically speaking, Ezra Pound came from America, and he never wished to return to America, nor join in the tradi- tion of American poetry in a narrow sense. Still those references discussed here strongly suggest that he continued to be an American poet throughout his career.
Works Cited:
Brooker, Peter. Students Guide to Selected Poems of Ezra Pound. London: Faber & Faber,. Print. Emerson, Ralph Waldo. Nature. American Transcendentalism Web. Spring. Dec.. Web. Frost, Robert. Selected Letters of Robert Frost. Ed. Lawrance Thompson. New York : Holt, Rinehart and Winston,. Print. Froula, Christine. A Guide to Ezra Pound’s Selected Poems. New York: New Direc- tions,. Print. Harding, Warren G. Americanism. Nation s Forum Recordings: -. The Authentic History Center. July ,. Web. Hummel, Grace E. Tokalon Perfumes. Cleopatra’s Boudoir. May ,. Web. Dec.. James, Henry. Hawthorne. Ithaca, NY: Cornell UP,. Print. Melville, Herman. Moby-Dick. Electronic Text Center, U of Virginia Library. n.d. Dec.. Web. Moody, Anthony David. Ezra Pound Poet: The Young Genius, 1885-1920. Oxford UP,. Print. Pound, Ezra. The Cantos of Ezra Pound. New York: New Directions,. Print. ---. Literary Essays of Ezra Pound , ed. T.S.Eliot. London: Faber & Faber,. Print. ---. The New Sculpture. The Egoist Vol. I, No. ( th February ): -. Print. ---. Personae ( ). New York: New Directions,. Print.
