Cathay
by Ezra Pound
'Cathay ' Summary
Pound worked on the poems in Cathay during the period he made a move from imagism to vorticism. Pound critic Zhaoming Qian calls "The River Merchant's Wife: A Letter", "The Jewell Stairs' Grievance" and "The Exile's Letter" "imagist and vorticist masterpieces".
The opening poem, "Song of the Bowmen of Shu", shows the dominant themes of separation and loneliness, especially the loneliness of the soldier. This is evident also in "Lament of the Frontier Guard", and is perhaps suggestive of Pound's great distress at the loss of life during World War One. Pound used imagery to convey inarticulate emotions in the poems. For example, in "The Jewel Stairs Grievance" a woman waits impatiently; yet her impatience is never directly mentioned and is instead subtly suggested and conveyed through the poem's images. Eventually Pound would use Fenollosa's work as a starting point for what he called the ideogrammic method.
Book Details
Author
Ezra Pound
United States
Ezra Weston Loomis Pound was an expatriate American poet and critic, a major figure in the early modernist poetry movement, and a fascist collaborator in Italy during World War II. His works include R...
More on Ezra PoundListen/Download Audiobook
- Select Speed
Related books
The Spell of the Yukon and Other Verses by Robert W. Service
Known as the Bard of the Yukon and as a people's poet, Robert Service immortalized his experience with the Yukon and its gold rush and this collection...
Ion by Plato (Πλάτων)
In Plato's Ion Socrates discusses with the titular character, a professional rhapsode who also lectures on Homer, the question of whether the rhapsode...
On the Nature of Things by Lucretius
De rerum natura is a first-century BC didactic poem by the Roman poet and philosopher Lucretius with the goal of explaining Epicurean philosophy to a...
Lockerbie Street by James Whitcomb Riley
The poem takes place on Lockerbie Street, a quiet and peaceful neighborhood where the speaker lived as a child. Through the poem, the speaker reminisc...
The Odyssey by Homer
A wandering king who's a war-hero doomed to roam the earth by a vengeful God, a plethora of fantastic experiences, a wife battling the invasion of sui...
Random Readings In Racy Rhyme: A Repast For The Recluse, A Refreshment For The Railway Reader by Charles Harwood Greene
This poetry showcases Greene's wit and humor, as he explores various topics ranging from love and romance to the everyday struggles of life. The poems...
Selected Poems by Currer, Ellis and Acton Bell by Anne Brontë
Currer Bell is Charlotte, Ellis Bell is Emily, and Acton Bell is Anne. Tragically, the free kindle volume doesn’t list who wrote each individual poem,...
Aladdin, Or, The Wonderful Lamp (A Dramatic Poem, in Two Parts) by Adam Oehlenschläger
It is a retelling of the classic tale of Aladdin and his magical lamp, which has captured the imagination of readers for generations. The book was fi...
Chimneysmoke by Christopher Morley
A collection of short poems on various themes by the author.
Reviews for Cathay
No reviews posted or approved, yet...