Ezra Pound and the Making of Modernism by William Pratt

Abstract

MLR, 104.1, 2009 187 selected passages with extreme careandperceptiveness. Some are so difficult that whenBeckman lists previousinterpretations we see that we are reallyinthedark. Readersnotfamiliar with 'Buckley's shooting ofthe Russiangeneral'and 'St Patrick and thearchdruid' (episodesstill notas current as the Wife ofBath)willhave todo quitea lotofhomework, butBeckman isone of thebestguidesthey could findto such mysteries and 'coincidentum oppositorum'(ashe callsthem more thanonce: recte 'coincidentia oppositorum'). Beckman'sreadings areneverfacile, and they are conducted with a sure hand: theyare concerned with giving us keys, adding a littleto ourunderstanding ofcertain passagesandofJoyce's methodandattitude: 'The Wake itself isan exerciseingetting things backwards, ofwearinglanguageinsideout,of taking a chanceon instability. Its nightmarish, jazzystyle exposesan infinite worldof delight-clever, learned, terrific, and lyrical' (p.196).Thoughclearly excited bythe revelations offered byJoyce, Beckmandoes not sentimentalize his allegedaffirma tions.His readings warn us tobeware of happy ends. This iswhat he has to say about twoofJoyce's most famous passages: 'Aconcluding sopranoariasetslife back into motion. Molly's sleepy "Yes" affirms what has come tobe; ALP's dyingwish forcon tinuity, "alongthe[deepbreath]riverrun" putsus back to whereandwhenhistory has "passencore" begun' (p.191).Beckman'sscholarship and style areexemplary. UNIVERSITY OF GENOA MASSIMo BACIGALUPO Ezra Poundand the Making of Modernism.ByWILLIAMPRATT. New York:AMS Press. 2007. 197 pp. $74.50. ISBN 978-0-404-61596-3. William Pratt isa Poundian stalwart ofmany years' standing, and thepresent volume collectshis thoughts on thetrajectory of thepoet's Modernist renaissance. These thoughts are not research-led, but comprise rather a sensitive and gentlemeditation on Pound's enterprise. With theaid ofVerlaineandArchibald MacLeisch, Pratt locates whathe callsa 'mutation' from Symbolism intoImagism priortoexamples fromtheFrench, Greek,andChinese as illustrative of thetransformations Pound wroughtupon his influences-nootherpoet 'ever borrowedfromasmanypoets and languages as Pound did' (p. 33). An account of the Imagist decade follows, setting itat the heartof whatwe understand by Modernism,before anargument for his troubadour inheritance andpractices. Prattthenturns totwodifferent forms of literary friendship, withYeatsgenerally, and,more specifically, withEliot and the 'Caesarean Operation' (p.117)heperformed on The WasteLand,whilea sustained reading of Canto LXXXI is used as the final triumph of themove from image to ideogram. Hugh Selwyn Mauberleyand thePisan Cantos are exploredas poetic self-portraits before anengagingly personalaccountofPratt's visitstoStElizabeth's in the mid-195os.Hells, both realand imaginary, takeup thepenultimate essay, priortoa conclusion claiming status for Pound'sprophetic voice. Theroots of Modernism wereFrench-theRealismofFlaubert and the Symbolism ofBaudelaire-and Pound sharedtheir ambition, which 'aimedatunderstanding literary art,not justproducingit' (p. 4),where,afterthelengthy apprenticeship i88 Reviews ofhis first sixvolumes,the Ripostes of 1912marks,for Pratt,theinauguration of the wayspoetry writteninEnglish was changed. A good close reader, Prattiswell attunedto theexplication of thetwocardinalfeatures of Modernism-unlimited metricalvariety andprecise, concentrated imagery (what Pound called 'permanent metaphor'). And he isgood alsoon thesheerrestlessness of thepoetry, itscontinu ous experimentation withinforms and languagesthatingeniously and inventively neverstaysstillforamoment,ceaselessly exploring fresh waysofusingwords. It iswith somejusticethat Prattidentifies Pound as a 'verbal magician'while at the samebeingalertto theshortcomings of suchmagic: 'Hewas likean unstoppable verbalfountain, spewing outa stream ofwords that mightrangefrom the depthsof vulgarity tothe heights ofeloquence'(p.171). Pickingup onAuden's cue thatnomodernwritercouldbe sureofnotbeing influenced byPound,Pratt placesconsiderable emphasis onPound as educator, not onlyinthe moreobviousexamples ofhisediting ofEliotorhiscollections ofessays, but inhis literary journalism(whichrunsto twenty-six volumes)and in thevast arrayofhis correspondence, thebulkofwhich remainstobe gatheredtogether. Pratt quotesEliot tosustain hispoint: Pound did not createthepoets:buthe createda situation inwhich,forthefirst time, therewas a 'modernmovement inpoetry' inwhich English and American poets collaborated, kneweachother's works, and influenced eachother. (p.50) Pound's restlessness, hisnever-ending instructions on theartofwriting poetry, his eagerappetite for newforms, his multilingual practices, his 'sailing after knowledge' in all itsvarious shapes, is perhaps best captured in the image of the troubadour. Pratt reminds us of the rootmeaning of theword from the Provencal trobar 'to find or discover', and it is just such an act of perpetual finding out that characterizes the tenor of these essays. UNIVERSITY OF KEELE IAN F. A. BELL EzraPound'sChinese Friends.Ed. byZHAOMING QIAN.Oxford: Oxford University Press. 2008. xii+242 pp. ?18.99. ISBN 978-o-19-923860-6. As theauthorofOrientalism andModernism:TheLegacyofChina inPound and Williams(Durham, NC, andLondon:Duke University Press,1995)andThe Moder nistResponsetoChinese Art:Pound, Moore, Stevens(Charlottesville andLondon: University of VirginiaPress,2003),andeditor ofEzraPoundandChina (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press,2003),ZhaomingQian bringsa distinguished...