" Made from the rattle of the
rattlesnake
and used in the dances of the bassarids.
A-Companion-to-the-Cantos-of-Ezra-Pound-II
Ramsey: James Ramsey MacDonald, 1866-1937, the British statesman and leader of the Labour party who several times became prime minister briefly.
Perhaps because he gave support to the abortive labor strike of 1926, or, later, joined with Conservatives in the economic crises of 1931, Pound sees him (as did many others) betraying his cause to the money barons.
53. "Leave the Duke . . . ": [50:28J_
54. "in less . . . epoch": H. L. Mencken wrote a letter to Pound in 1937 which he quotes with approval. Saying first that because a politician messes something up doesn't prove it's wrong, H. L. M adds: "Nevertheless, I believe that all schemes of monetary reform collide inevitably with the nature of man in the mass. He can't be convinced in anything less than a geological epoch. " Pound comments: "Above state- ment does not invalidate geological process"
[GK, 182J.
55. Fleet _. . Salamis: [74:109J.
56. Wilkes: John W. , 1727-1797, onetime lord mayor of London. A book by Raymond Postgate entitled That Devil Wilkes [New York, 1929J said: "His chief power to tip the balance in favor of the poor lay in hi' authority to fix the price of bread-or rather since the loaf was fixed at a penny, to fix the size of the loaf" [po 204J. In 1775, Wilkes did it [Fang, III, 22J .
57. hOa. :;: H, "moral bent" or "cultural force," or prob. both.
58. Athene: [17:16J In speaking of the Greek panetheon of women [patria MiaJ, Pound talks of "Ceres, the mother" type; then, "Juno, the British matron" type, "propriety and social position to be main- tained, no one's comfort considered. Women of this type have been always, and, thank God, always will be, deceived by their hus- bands. Aphrodite-enough said. Pallas Athene, the much pitied intellectual" [SP, 119-120J.
S9. caesia oculi: L, "gray eyes. "
60. 'Y/I. ",v~: H, "the owl . . . so called from its glaring 'eyes" [L & SJ. Pound quotes from Allen Upward thus: "How hard the old cloistered scholarship. . . has toiled to understand the word glaukopis given to the goddess Athene_ Did it mean blue-eyed or grey. eyed, or-by the aid of Sanskrit-merely glare-eyed? And all the time they had not only the word glaux staring them in the
36. Hagoromo: [74:124J.
Japanese
Noh play
37. Kumasaka: A Noh play [74:363J.
38. Troas: The Troad, the territory sur- rounding the ancient city of Troy.
39. Ismarus . . . : Odysseus attacked
soon after he left Troy, but after an initial defeat, the Ciconians rallied and drove the Greeks back to their ships rOd. IX, 39ff. J . An example of the "Greek rascality" just mentioned, which justified the gods' 10-year delay of his nostus [80:364J.
40. e poi basta: I, "and then nothing else. " In Analects XV, 40, Pound says: "He said: Problem of style? Get the meaning across then STOP" [CON, 269J.
41.
speech, message. "
Ideogram
"words,
1: Tz'u
[M6984 J,
42. Ideogram 2: Ta [M5956J, "intelli? gent. . . to apprehend. " As drawn, one component in the right of the character is missing. Pound said to Kenner: "What Confucius has to say about style is contained in two characters. The first says 'Get the meaning across,' and the second says 'Stop. ' " When Kenner asked what he saw in the first character, he said, with protestations and a Jamesian pause: "lead the sheep out to pasture" [HK, Era, 13J .
Ismarus
? ? 426
79/486-488
79/488-492
427
face, but they had the owl itself cut at the foot of every statue of Athene and stamped on every coin of Athens, to tell them that she was the owl-eyed goddess, the lightning that blinks like an owl. For what is charac- teristic of the owl's eyes is not that they glare, but that they suddenly leave off glaring like lighthouses whose light is shut off" [SP, 407; 74:302].
61. mah? : I, "but then? "
62. D'Arezzo: [cf. 43 above].
63. chiacchierona: I, chiachierona, "cackler. "
64. Ideogram 1: Huang [M2297], "yellow. "
65. Ideogram 2: Niao [M4688], "bird. "
66. Ideogram 3: Chih [M939], "rests. " Pound translates the refrain of Ode 230 in the Book of Poetry thus: "the silky warble runs in the yellow throat, bird comes to fest on angle of the hill" [EP, Odes, 143] . The three characters are taken from this ode.
67. auctor: L, "author. " 68. Tellus: [77:75].
69. si come . . . dispitto:
Hell in great disdain" [77:152; 78:79].
70. Capanaeus: Capaneus. One of the seven against Thebes who defied the divine com- mand of Zeus by attempting to scale the wall. Zeus zapped him with a thunderbolt and Dante placed him among the blasphe- mers in Hell [In! XIV, 43ff. ] .
71. 'YEet feconda: H, "earth"; I, "fruitful. " For Helen's breast see 106/752 [106:9].
72. "each one . . . ": Recurrent phrase from the Bible [74:353].
73. mint, thyme and basilicum: Plants associated with paradise [CFT, Pai, 3-1, 93-94].
74. "half dead . . . ": From "Blood and the Moon," by W. B. Yeats: "In mockery I have set / A powerful emblem up / . . . In mockery of a time / Half dead at the top. "
75. goyim: Yiddish epithet for non-Jews.
76. Yu-en-mi: The Youanmi Gold Mines. Ltd. , promoted by Herbert Hoover in 1912.
77. Mr Keith: Pass. William Keith, 1838- 1911, an American painter.
78. Donatello: Donato di Niccolo di Betto Bardi, ? 1386-1466, Italian sculptor.
79. 0 Lynx: One of the feline animals sacred to Dionysus. The lyric refrains and appeals to the lynx in the rest of the canto may be conceived as a generalized prayer to the god of sex and wine, but as imagining a particular woman. Scholars debate whether Pound had Dorothy Pound or Olga Rudge or Bride Scratton or even someone else in mind. One might note that, as far as the poetry is concerned (here and in anumber of other identifications), it doesn't matter.
80. Manitou: The Algonquin Indian name for the natural power that permeates all things.
81. Khardas: Poss. Persian Khiirbiit, the lead
88. EV, TpoiV: H, "in Troy. " From the song
105. Astafieva: [cf. 9 above].
106. Byzance: Byzantium.
107. ""laKXE . . . : H, "Iacchos, Rejoice! "
108. "Eat if it not . . . error: Because Kore ate the pomegranate seeds that Dis gave her, Zeus condemned her to return to Hades for four months each year.
109. AOI: MF(? ), occurs 172 times in ms. of La Chanson de Roland: meaning un- known. Perhaps it means "Hail" as in "10. "
110. Kop1J: H, "Daughter. " Persephone, the daughter of Demeter.
111. Pomona: Ancient Italian goddess at fruit trees.
112. fire . . . flame: The potent sexuality all nature is alive with, particularly fruit, in which the seed is concentrated.
113. Melagrana: I, "Pomegranate. "
114. Heliads: [76:6].
115. erot. le: I, "the rattlesnake's rattle. "
116. 'YA",vKwm" H, "with gleaming eyes. " Epithet for Aphrodite, Cythera [Kuthera]
[cf. 60 above] .
117. erotales: I, "castanets.
" Made from the rattle of the rattlesnake and used in the dances of the bassarids.
118. ixwp: H, "ichor. " The juice that flows in the veins of the gods. It was conceived to be different from blood, but came to be blood.
119. kalicanthus: The calycanthus flower.
120. 'A? pDIi[T~v: H, "Aphrodite. "
121. ? 'HAw" H, "Helios. " The sun at dawn. The "red glow in the pine spikes" anticipates the Na-Khi flora and ambience in Thrones and Cantos 110, 112 [102:49].
I, "as
if he held
98. '-I"'KXo" 1o! . . . : H,
[another name for Dionysus] , Hail Cythera [Aphrodite]. "
donkey in the Shah Firdausi [EH] .
Nameh
[77: I 71]
of
82. "Prepare . . . ": rOd. X,450].
"Hail
lacchos
83. How [77:30].
is it far
. . . :
Recurrent
leit-motif
84. Lidya: Lydia Yavorska, 1874-1921, a Russian-born actress (and erstwhile wife of Prince Vladimir Bariatinsky) who acted in London, 1910-1921. She prob. told Pound the story of the executioner. Pound may have seen her accost Henry James: "Men of my time have witnessed 'parties' in London gardens where . . . everyone else (male) wore grey 'toppers. ' As I remember it even Henry James wore one, and unless memory blends two occasions he wore also an enormous checked weskit" [GK, 82].
85. Mr. James: [7:13; 74:191].
86. "Cher maItre": F, "Dear Master. " 87. fish-tails: The Sirens.
122. IiELVe. ? . . : Cythera. "
H, "You are
fearful,
'I
of the Sirens to 189-190].
Odysseus
[Od. XII,
89. Eos nor Hesperus: The Morning and Evening stars here [80: 110].
90. Silenus: A satyr, sometimes called the son of Hermes or Pan, who was a companion o f Dionysus.
91. Casey: Corporal at the DTC.
92. bassarids: Thracian maenads.
93. Maelids: Tree nymphs [3: 12] .
94. cossak: [cf. 84 above]. He executes because he likes to.
95. Salazar . . . : Trainees at DTC.
ably many of the trainees, especially black soldiers, had names of early presidents of the United States and even of famous non? presidents such as Calhoun.
96. Calhoun: [34:48]. The "Retaliate" theme, developed in detail in Cantos 87-89, is first sounded here.
97. Priapus: God of fertility, son of Dionysus and Aphrodite.
99. having root . . . : Perhaps the Analects IV, 16: "The proper man under- stands equity, the small man, profits" [CON, 207].
100. lo! : A Greek salute usually translated, "Hail! "
101. you can make, . . converts: The China miSSionary heard here may be the one at 28/136.
102. Sweetland: Prob. one of the trainees at the DTC.
103. EAET/OOV: H, "have mercy. "
104. Kyrie eleison: H, "Lord, have mercy. " Phrase from Orthodox liturgy and Roman Mass.
Presum?
idea of
123. KOP1J . . . : H, "Daughter [Persephone],
? 428
79/492
80/493 429
and Delia [Artemis/Dianaj, and Maia [mother of Hermes] . "
124. KV7TP" . . . : "Cyprus Aphrodite. "
125. Kv81]p"': H, "Cythera [Aphrodite]. "
126. aram . . . vult: L, "The grove needs an altar. " Recurrent theme which climaxes at 90/607 when, in a visionary passage, the
grove gets its altar [74:441].
127. Cimbica: Writing about the work of W. H. Hudson, Pound said: "He would lead us to South America. . . for the sake of meeting a puma, Chimbica, friend of man, the most loyal of wildcats" [SP, 431]. A rhyme with other animals of the cat family who have significance as manifestations
of the divine presence in nature.
94? 100; Peck, Pai, 1-1,9; Flory, Pai, 5-1, 45-46: HK, Pai, 2-3, 492; CFT,Pai, 5-1, 69-76;Surette,Pai,6-1, 111-13;BK,Pai,5-2, 350; JW, Pai, 12-1,55-75; DP, Barb, 274-284; WB,Rose, passim; HK, Era, 72-74, 113-114, 476-481, 488-489, passim; Achilles Fang, "Materials for the Study of Pound's Cantos," Ph. D. disser- tation, Harvard University, 1958, Vols. II, III, IV; Michael King, "Ezra Pound at Pisa: An Interview with John L. Steele," Texas Quarterly, XXI,4, Winter 1978,49-61 [King, "Steele"]. NS, Life, 45, 322; R. Sieburth, Instigations, Cambridge, Harvard University Press, 1978, 15; Charles Norman, Ezra Pound, New York, Mac- millan. 1960 [CN, Pound] : CB-R, ZBC, 106.
Glossary
6. Finlandia: A tone poem by the Finnish composer Sibelius.
7. Debussy: Claude D. , 1862-1918. French composer.
8. pains au lai! : F, "milk rolls"
9. eucalyptus: On the day Pound was arrested by the Partisans, he picked up a seed of the eucalyptus tree on the salita and carried it as a good luck charm.
10. "Come pan, nifio! ": S, "Eat bread, boy. "
CANTO LXXX Sources
Ain' committed . . . : Opinion of why
Time, Aug. 13, Aug. 6, Jul. 2, 1945; Homer, ad. x, V; Horace, Odes I; James Legge, The Four Books, Shanghai, 1923 [Legge]; Thomas Lovell Beddoes, Death's Jest-Book; T. S. Eliot, The Waste Land, Ash Wednesday; Horace, Ars Poetica; Dante, In! V. IX; Shakespeare, Twelfth Night IV, Julius Caeser III, sc. 2; Samuel Johnson, The Plays of William Shakespeare, 1765;Pierre de Ronsard, Sonnets pour Helene, II; Wyndham Lewis, Blasting and Bombardiering, London, 1937 [Blasting]; Enrico Pea, Moscardino, trans. Ezra Pound, New York, New Directions, 1955; EP,CON, 218, 257, 229, 99,247, 145:P,271,257,39, 192,28; Morris Speare, The Pocket Book o f Verse, 1940 [Spear].
Background
EP,L, 21, 95,131,331,333,338,341,179,52, 228;GK, 199, 88-89,200, 80-81,309-310, 179, 185, 189, 110, 180-181,227, 31, 79, 146; PE, 23, 29, 205, 11; NEW, 163; SP, 414, 378-383, 24,115-117, 124,418; ABCR, 43, 79-80;LE, 431-440, 276;SR, 161,84,208; Michael Holroyd, Augustus John, New York, 1974 [Holroyd, John]; Dictionary of Literary Biography, vol. 4; American Writers in Paris, 1920-1939, by George Wickes, Detroit, 1980; John Gould Fletcher, Life is My Song, New York, 1937; George Santayana, Persons and Places, vols. 1, 2, New York, 1944-45; Ford Madox Ford, Portraits from Life, New York, 1937; Poetry, March 1918; Julian Franklin, Heraldry, London, ARCU, 1965.
Exegeses
Chilanti, Pai, 6-2, 245; Shuldiner, Pai, 4-1,73-78; Nassar, i'ai, 1-2, 210; Davie, Pai, 6-1, 102; Kimpel, Pai, 10-2,308; CFT, Pai, 3-1,
1.
he's in the DTC expressed by Mr. A. Little- or one of the trainees.
2. GEfJ. t<:: H, "law (not as fixed by statute, but) as established by custom: justice, right" [L&S]. The vagaries of justice come from murderers and rapists receiving sentences similar to ones received by those guilty of
minor transgressions.
3. Amo ergo sum: L, "I love; therefore I am. " Rephrasing of the Cartesian cogito. A musical figure often used by Pound.
4. Margot: M. Asquith [38:22]. Time [Aug. 6, 1945] carried her obituary: "Died. Margot Asquith, 81, The Countess of Oxford and Asquith, witty widow of British Prime Minister (1908-16) Herbert H. Asquith, longtime society enfant terrible. . . . Her lifetime of audacities included writing a note in pencil to Queen Victoria, declining to stay at a dinner party despite King Edward's request. " Pound was fond of her. She ordered copies of Blast in advance [Fletcher, Life is My Song, 137] and had her portrait
sketched by Gaudier-Brzeska [Fang, II, 82].
5. Walter: W. Morse Rummel, 1887-1953, German pianist and composer who was much interested in 12th- and 13th-century French songs. Pound lived with him for months at a time in Paris and mentions him often [L, 21, 95, 131; GK, 199]. Like Michio Ito [77: 86] , he seems to have lacked a coin for the gas meter at times.
II.
53. "Leave the Duke . . . ": [50:28J_
54. "in less . . . epoch": H. L. Mencken wrote a letter to Pound in 1937 which he quotes with approval. Saying first that because a politician messes something up doesn't prove it's wrong, H. L. M adds: "Nevertheless, I believe that all schemes of monetary reform collide inevitably with the nature of man in the mass. He can't be convinced in anything less than a geological epoch. " Pound comments: "Above state- ment does not invalidate geological process"
[GK, 182J.
55. Fleet _. . Salamis: [74:109J.
56. Wilkes: John W. , 1727-1797, onetime lord mayor of London. A book by Raymond Postgate entitled That Devil Wilkes [New York, 1929J said: "His chief power to tip the balance in favor of the poor lay in hi' authority to fix the price of bread-or rather since the loaf was fixed at a penny, to fix the size of the loaf" [po 204J. In 1775, Wilkes did it [Fang, III, 22J .
57. hOa. :;: H, "moral bent" or "cultural force," or prob. both.
58. Athene: [17:16J In speaking of the Greek panetheon of women [patria MiaJ, Pound talks of "Ceres, the mother" type; then, "Juno, the British matron" type, "propriety and social position to be main- tained, no one's comfort considered. Women of this type have been always, and, thank God, always will be, deceived by their hus- bands. Aphrodite-enough said. Pallas Athene, the much pitied intellectual" [SP, 119-120J.
S9. caesia oculi: L, "gray eyes. "
60. 'Y/I. ",v~: H, "the owl . . . so called from its glaring 'eyes" [L & SJ. Pound quotes from Allen Upward thus: "How hard the old cloistered scholarship. . . has toiled to understand the word glaukopis given to the goddess Athene_ Did it mean blue-eyed or grey. eyed, or-by the aid of Sanskrit-merely glare-eyed? And all the time they had not only the word glaux staring them in the
36. Hagoromo: [74:124J.
Japanese
Noh play
37. Kumasaka: A Noh play [74:363J.
38. Troas: The Troad, the territory sur- rounding the ancient city of Troy.
39. Ismarus . . . : Odysseus attacked
soon after he left Troy, but after an initial defeat, the Ciconians rallied and drove the Greeks back to their ships rOd. IX, 39ff. J . An example of the "Greek rascality" just mentioned, which justified the gods' 10-year delay of his nostus [80:364J.
40. e poi basta: I, "and then nothing else. " In Analects XV, 40, Pound says: "He said: Problem of style? Get the meaning across then STOP" [CON, 269J.
41.
speech, message. "
Ideogram
"words,
1: Tz'u
[M6984 J,
42. Ideogram 2: Ta [M5956J, "intelli? gent. . . to apprehend. " As drawn, one component in the right of the character is missing. Pound said to Kenner: "What Confucius has to say about style is contained in two characters. The first says 'Get the meaning across,' and the second says 'Stop. ' " When Kenner asked what he saw in the first character, he said, with protestations and a Jamesian pause: "lead the sheep out to pasture" [HK, Era, 13J .
Ismarus
? ? 426
79/486-488
79/488-492
427
face, but they had the owl itself cut at the foot of every statue of Athene and stamped on every coin of Athens, to tell them that she was the owl-eyed goddess, the lightning that blinks like an owl. For what is charac- teristic of the owl's eyes is not that they glare, but that they suddenly leave off glaring like lighthouses whose light is shut off" [SP, 407; 74:302].
61. mah? : I, "but then? "
62. D'Arezzo: [cf. 43 above].
63. chiacchierona: I, chiachierona, "cackler. "
64. Ideogram 1: Huang [M2297], "yellow. "
65. Ideogram 2: Niao [M4688], "bird. "
66. Ideogram 3: Chih [M939], "rests. " Pound translates the refrain of Ode 230 in the Book of Poetry thus: "the silky warble runs in the yellow throat, bird comes to fest on angle of the hill" [EP, Odes, 143] . The three characters are taken from this ode.
67. auctor: L, "author. " 68. Tellus: [77:75].
69. si come . . . dispitto:
Hell in great disdain" [77:152; 78:79].
70. Capanaeus: Capaneus. One of the seven against Thebes who defied the divine com- mand of Zeus by attempting to scale the wall. Zeus zapped him with a thunderbolt and Dante placed him among the blasphe- mers in Hell [In! XIV, 43ff. ] .
71. 'YEet feconda: H, "earth"; I, "fruitful. " For Helen's breast see 106/752 [106:9].
72. "each one . . . ": Recurrent phrase from the Bible [74:353].
73. mint, thyme and basilicum: Plants associated with paradise [CFT, Pai, 3-1, 93-94].
74. "half dead . . . ": From "Blood and the Moon," by W. B. Yeats: "In mockery I have set / A powerful emblem up / . . . In mockery of a time / Half dead at the top. "
75. goyim: Yiddish epithet for non-Jews.
76. Yu-en-mi: The Youanmi Gold Mines. Ltd. , promoted by Herbert Hoover in 1912.
77. Mr Keith: Pass. William Keith, 1838- 1911, an American painter.
78. Donatello: Donato di Niccolo di Betto Bardi, ? 1386-1466, Italian sculptor.
79. 0 Lynx: One of the feline animals sacred to Dionysus. The lyric refrains and appeals to the lynx in the rest of the canto may be conceived as a generalized prayer to the god of sex and wine, but as imagining a particular woman. Scholars debate whether Pound had Dorothy Pound or Olga Rudge or Bride Scratton or even someone else in mind. One might note that, as far as the poetry is concerned (here and in anumber of other identifications), it doesn't matter.
80. Manitou: The Algonquin Indian name for the natural power that permeates all things.
81. Khardas: Poss. Persian Khiirbiit, the lead
88. EV, TpoiV: H, "in Troy. " From the song
105. Astafieva: [cf. 9 above].
106. Byzance: Byzantium.
107. ""laKXE . . . : H, "Iacchos, Rejoice! "
108. "Eat if it not . . . error: Because Kore ate the pomegranate seeds that Dis gave her, Zeus condemned her to return to Hades for four months each year.
109. AOI: MF(? ), occurs 172 times in ms. of La Chanson de Roland: meaning un- known. Perhaps it means "Hail" as in "10. "
110. Kop1J: H, "Daughter. " Persephone, the daughter of Demeter.
111. Pomona: Ancient Italian goddess at fruit trees.
112. fire . . . flame: The potent sexuality all nature is alive with, particularly fruit, in which the seed is concentrated.
113. Melagrana: I, "Pomegranate. "
114. Heliads: [76:6].
115. erot. le: I, "the rattlesnake's rattle. "
116. 'YA",vKwm" H, "with gleaming eyes. " Epithet for Aphrodite, Cythera [Kuthera]
[cf. 60 above] .
117. erotales: I, "castanets.
" Made from the rattle of the rattlesnake and used in the dances of the bassarids.
118. ixwp: H, "ichor. " The juice that flows in the veins of the gods. It was conceived to be different from blood, but came to be blood.
119. kalicanthus: The calycanthus flower.
120. 'A? pDIi[T~v: H, "Aphrodite. "
121. ? 'HAw" H, "Helios. " The sun at dawn. The "red glow in the pine spikes" anticipates the Na-Khi flora and ambience in Thrones and Cantos 110, 112 [102:49].
I, "as
if he held
98. '-I"'KXo" 1o! . . . : H,
[another name for Dionysus] , Hail Cythera [Aphrodite]. "
donkey in the Shah Firdausi [EH] .
Nameh
[77: I 71]
of
82. "Prepare . . . ": rOd. X,450].
"Hail
lacchos
83. How [77:30].
is it far
. . . :
Recurrent
leit-motif
84. Lidya: Lydia Yavorska, 1874-1921, a Russian-born actress (and erstwhile wife of Prince Vladimir Bariatinsky) who acted in London, 1910-1921. She prob. told Pound the story of the executioner. Pound may have seen her accost Henry James: "Men of my time have witnessed 'parties' in London gardens where . . . everyone else (male) wore grey 'toppers. ' As I remember it even Henry James wore one, and unless memory blends two occasions he wore also an enormous checked weskit" [GK, 82].
85. Mr. James: [7:13; 74:191].
86. "Cher maItre": F, "Dear Master. " 87. fish-tails: The Sirens.
122. IiELVe. ? . . : Cythera. "
H, "You are
fearful,
'I
of the Sirens to 189-190].
Odysseus
[Od. XII,
89. Eos nor Hesperus: The Morning and Evening stars here [80: 110].
90. Silenus: A satyr, sometimes called the son of Hermes or Pan, who was a companion o f Dionysus.
91. Casey: Corporal at the DTC.
92. bassarids: Thracian maenads.
93. Maelids: Tree nymphs [3: 12] .
94. cossak: [cf. 84 above]. He executes because he likes to.
95. Salazar . . . : Trainees at DTC.
ably many of the trainees, especially black soldiers, had names of early presidents of the United States and even of famous non? presidents such as Calhoun.
96. Calhoun: [34:48]. The "Retaliate" theme, developed in detail in Cantos 87-89, is first sounded here.
97. Priapus: God of fertility, son of Dionysus and Aphrodite.
99. having root . . . : Perhaps the Analects IV, 16: "The proper man under- stands equity, the small man, profits" [CON, 207].
100. lo! : A Greek salute usually translated, "Hail! "
101. you can make, . . converts: The China miSSionary heard here may be the one at 28/136.
102. Sweetland: Prob. one of the trainees at the DTC.
103. EAET/OOV: H, "have mercy. "
104. Kyrie eleison: H, "Lord, have mercy. " Phrase from Orthodox liturgy and Roman Mass.
Presum?
idea of
123. KOP1J . . . : H, "Daughter [Persephone],
? 428
79/492
80/493 429
and Delia [Artemis/Dianaj, and Maia [mother of Hermes] . "
124. KV7TP" . . . : "Cyprus Aphrodite. "
125. Kv81]p"': H, "Cythera [Aphrodite]. "
126. aram . . . vult: L, "The grove needs an altar. " Recurrent theme which climaxes at 90/607 when, in a visionary passage, the
grove gets its altar [74:441].
127. Cimbica: Writing about the work of W. H. Hudson, Pound said: "He would lead us to South America. . . for the sake of meeting a puma, Chimbica, friend of man, the most loyal of wildcats" [SP, 431]. A rhyme with other animals of the cat family who have significance as manifestations
of the divine presence in nature.
94? 100; Peck, Pai, 1-1,9; Flory, Pai, 5-1, 45-46: HK, Pai, 2-3, 492; CFT,Pai, 5-1, 69-76;Surette,Pai,6-1, 111-13;BK,Pai,5-2, 350; JW, Pai, 12-1,55-75; DP, Barb, 274-284; WB,Rose, passim; HK, Era, 72-74, 113-114, 476-481, 488-489, passim; Achilles Fang, "Materials for the Study of Pound's Cantos," Ph. D. disser- tation, Harvard University, 1958, Vols. II, III, IV; Michael King, "Ezra Pound at Pisa: An Interview with John L. Steele," Texas Quarterly, XXI,4, Winter 1978,49-61 [King, "Steele"]. NS, Life, 45, 322; R. Sieburth, Instigations, Cambridge, Harvard University Press, 1978, 15; Charles Norman, Ezra Pound, New York, Mac- millan. 1960 [CN, Pound] : CB-R, ZBC, 106.
Glossary
6. Finlandia: A tone poem by the Finnish composer Sibelius.
7. Debussy: Claude D. , 1862-1918. French composer.
8. pains au lai! : F, "milk rolls"
9. eucalyptus: On the day Pound was arrested by the Partisans, he picked up a seed of the eucalyptus tree on the salita and carried it as a good luck charm.
10. "Come pan, nifio! ": S, "Eat bread, boy. "
CANTO LXXX Sources
Ain' committed . . . : Opinion of why
Time, Aug. 13, Aug. 6, Jul. 2, 1945; Homer, ad. x, V; Horace, Odes I; James Legge, The Four Books, Shanghai, 1923 [Legge]; Thomas Lovell Beddoes, Death's Jest-Book; T. S. Eliot, The Waste Land, Ash Wednesday; Horace, Ars Poetica; Dante, In! V. IX; Shakespeare, Twelfth Night IV, Julius Caeser III, sc. 2; Samuel Johnson, The Plays of William Shakespeare, 1765;Pierre de Ronsard, Sonnets pour Helene, II; Wyndham Lewis, Blasting and Bombardiering, London, 1937 [Blasting]; Enrico Pea, Moscardino, trans. Ezra Pound, New York, New Directions, 1955; EP,CON, 218, 257, 229, 99,247, 145:P,271,257,39, 192,28; Morris Speare, The Pocket Book o f Verse, 1940 [Spear].
Background
EP,L, 21, 95,131,331,333,338,341,179,52, 228;GK, 199, 88-89,200, 80-81,309-310, 179, 185, 189, 110, 180-181,227, 31, 79, 146; PE, 23, 29, 205, 11; NEW, 163; SP, 414, 378-383, 24,115-117, 124,418; ABCR, 43, 79-80;LE, 431-440, 276;SR, 161,84,208; Michael Holroyd, Augustus John, New York, 1974 [Holroyd, John]; Dictionary of Literary Biography, vol. 4; American Writers in Paris, 1920-1939, by George Wickes, Detroit, 1980; John Gould Fletcher, Life is My Song, New York, 1937; George Santayana, Persons and Places, vols. 1, 2, New York, 1944-45; Ford Madox Ford, Portraits from Life, New York, 1937; Poetry, March 1918; Julian Franklin, Heraldry, London, ARCU, 1965.
Exegeses
Chilanti, Pai, 6-2, 245; Shuldiner, Pai, 4-1,73-78; Nassar, i'ai, 1-2, 210; Davie, Pai, 6-1, 102; Kimpel, Pai, 10-2,308; CFT, Pai, 3-1,
1.
he's in the DTC expressed by Mr. A. Little- or one of the trainees.
2. GEfJ. t<:: H, "law (not as fixed by statute, but) as established by custom: justice, right" [L&S]. The vagaries of justice come from murderers and rapists receiving sentences similar to ones received by those guilty of
minor transgressions.
3. Amo ergo sum: L, "I love; therefore I am. " Rephrasing of the Cartesian cogito. A musical figure often used by Pound.
4. Margot: M. Asquith [38:22]. Time [Aug. 6, 1945] carried her obituary: "Died. Margot Asquith, 81, The Countess of Oxford and Asquith, witty widow of British Prime Minister (1908-16) Herbert H. Asquith, longtime society enfant terrible. . . . Her lifetime of audacities included writing a note in pencil to Queen Victoria, declining to stay at a dinner party despite King Edward's request. " Pound was fond of her. She ordered copies of Blast in advance [Fletcher, Life is My Song, 137] and had her portrait
sketched by Gaudier-Brzeska [Fang, II, 82].
5. Walter: W. Morse Rummel, 1887-1953, German pianist and composer who was much interested in 12th- and 13th-century French songs. Pound lived with him for months at a time in Paris and mentions him often [L, 21, 95, 131; GK, 199]. Like Michio Ito [77: 86] , he seems to have lacked a coin for the gas meter at times.
II.
