The Mays of Ventadorn by W.S. Merwin

The Mays of Ventadorn
This entry is part 27 of 57 in the series Blogging Pound's The Cantos

While I must admit to having read none of Merwin’s poetry, I found myself quite curious about his book, The Mays of Ventadorn; since encountering the most famous of the songs of Bernart de Ventadorn, I have always considered him my favorite troubadour. (And while this is not unusual–Bernart was something of a rockstar in his day, and is well-remembered today–I was pleased to discover that my fascination was shared by Merwin.) This book was published by National Geographic Directions, and is part of a series titled The Literary Travel Series, a job for which Merwin is well-suited, having spent …

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Ezra Pound Posts Delayed

This entry is part 26 of 57 in the series Blogging Pound's The Cantos

Those reading along will note that I missed last week’s Ezra Pound post: I got busy, and am still working my way through the source text I want to discuss. To add to that, I’m currently traveling and though I’ve read and thought about Cantos XXXI-XXXIII, I won’t be able to post about them until sometime tomorrow or the next day. I don’t really have a lot to say about them at the moment, so maybe that’s a sign more thought is needed anyway. Anyway, more coming soon…  

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Blogging Pound’s The Cantos: Canto XXVIII-XXX

Pope Alexander (Alessandro) Vl
This entry is part 25 of 57 in the series Blogging Pound's The Cantos

This post is one in a series of readings I’m posting of each poem in Ezra Pound’s The Cantos, a few at a time. These are not exactly typical readings of the poems, so much as readings I’m doing with a specific research project in mind — how to write Ezra Pound as a figure in a novel in which modernist artists, poets, and musicians secretly waged an occult war in the earlier half of the 20th century. Or maybe about artists, musicians, and poets waging a secret, occult war in some other world vaguely like ours, in a time period …

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Blogging Pound’s The Cantos: Canto XXVII

This entry is part 24 of 57 in the series Blogging Pound's The Cantos

This post is one in a series of readings I’m posting of each poem in Ezra Pound’s The Cantos, a few at a time. These are not exactly typical readings of the poems, so much as readings I’m doing with a specific research project in mind — how to write Ezra Pound as a figure in a novel in which modernist artists, poets, and musicians secretly waged an occult war in the earlier half of the 20th century. Or maybe about artists, musicians, and poets waging a secret, occult war in some other world vaguely like ours, in a time period …

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A Study From Ontario: Leon Surette’s A Light From Eleusis: A Study of Ezra Pound’s Cantos

This entry is part 23 of 57 in the series Blogging Pound's The Cantos

(Note: This week’s first (and only on-time) posting for the series on Pound’s The Cantos is a review of an academic text I completed a few weeks ago. Since I will have completed my discussion of A Draft of Cantos 17-27 this week, I figured I might as take the opportunity to post this already-written-up post while I’m still mired in final exam stuff. (If I was less busy, I’d have posted this after Canto XXX. But it’s the week after exams, and I’m up to my neck in grading, so…) (By the way I’ll be posting my reading of Canto …

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