Ezra Pound Reading Canto LXXXI

What thou lovest well remains,
the rest is dross
What thou lov’st well shall not be reft from thee
What thou lov’st well is thy true heritage
Whose world, or mine or theirs
or is it of none?
First came the seen, then thus the palpable
Elysium, though it were in the halls of hell,
What thou lovest well is thy true heritage
What thou lov’st well shall not be reft from thee
The ant’s a centaur in his dragon world.
Pull down thy vanity, it is not man
Made courage, or made order, or made grace,
Pull down thy vanity, I say pull down.
Learn of the green world what can be thy place
In scaled invention or true artistry,
Pull down thy vanity,
Paquin pull down!
The green casque has outdone your elegance.
“Master thyself, then others shall thee beare”
Pull down thy vanity
Thou art a beaten dog beneath the hail,
A swollen magpie in a fitful sun,
Half black half white
Nor knowst’ou wing from tail
Pull down thy vanity
How mean thy hates
Fostered in falsity,
Pull down thy vanity,
Rathe to destroy, niggard in charity,
Pull down thy vanity,
I say pull down.
But to have done instead of not doing
this is not vanity
To have, with decency, knocked
That a Blunt should open
To have gathered from the air a live tradition
or from a fine old eye the unconquered flame
This is not vanity.
Here error is all in the not done,
all in the diffidence that faltered . . .
www.poetryfoundation.org/poem...

[@AllendeEtAl]

Pound had an incredible sense of rythm.

[@actualideas8078]

Rhythm must have meaning

[@robertjordan355]

Well he is a poet after all

[@dodgerdrifter1953]

Everlasting Ezra Pound & Julius EVOLA forever in our hearts!..

[@meadbook999]

"The ant's a centaur in his dragon world."

[@MrGunwitch]

Yep, that's the line right there.

[@finosuilleabhain7781]

@@MrGunwitch Testify.

[@barrytebb7947]

I had this poem up on the wall when i taught A stream juniors in 1964

[@miralupa8841]

Barry Tebb i have it on the wall by my bed. this poem does not wear out

[@Daisy-yq1gi]

Pound: unbroken, genius, unfathomable, one in a hundred million, utterly inspiring....moving...

[@bsku0765]

And unfortunately fascist

[@h4xo7]

@@bsku0765 'pull down thy facistry!' :P

[@TheFaithfulRedeemer]

@@bsku0765 You don't know what fascism is

[@bsku0765]

@@TheFaithfulRedeemer Uh... why?

[@mikewalsh6168]

@@TheFaithfulRedeemer Pound certainly did unfortunately

[@lucianapennelli8514]

The video is highly emotional,his voice goes straight to one's heart. A towering figure in literature,in spite of those subpar who tried to clip his wings.

[@the19thcentury81]

Reference to Wilfrid Scawen Blunt at 2:09. This Victorian poet Pound had a profound admiration for as he was trying meet as many eminent Victorians still alive by the early 1910s. They along with Yeats, Richard Aldington and three other poets famously had a peacock lunch at Blunt's estate in West Sussex on January 18 1914.

[@Cleisthenes2]

Yes, I fear today's students would interpret 'a blunt' somewhat differently

[@the19thcentury81]

@@Cleisthenes2 I understand what you mean but I think any reasonable English teacher would get their students to look into the backstory of a poem. Yet again we are living in an age where Fifty Shades of Grey can make it onto the NY bestsellers list

[@pietrocalcioli8169]

Quello che ha passato , questo grande uomo..!!!!

[@mbdulka]

America's greatest pure poet ... the ending is the cemetery in Venice, where he is buried. Americans! Go pay your respects ...

[@yonathanasefaw9001]

Great poet, he was truly a brilliant visionary.

[@flaviogarridovidela2030]

Para mi el mejor poeta del siglo xx

[@nataliaronca1275]

Pound... IMMENSO ❤️

[@wauliepalnuts6134]

*_HE WAS MY GREAT GRANDFATHER._*

[@Orm493]

its sick its piss its revolting its insulting

[@youarewrong5523]

I am a distant paternal relative of Ezra, greetings cousin!

[@JoseChavez-kq1ic]

Must be an honor to belong to that family.

[@Manaritzis88]

He was a great nazi

[@throckmorton3705]

i wonder what ezra would have thought about ypur all caps

[@MMradnane]

He was considered crazy for exposing the Federal Reserve

[@ConcreteJungleSickness]

“Usura slayeth the child in the womb It stayeth the young man’s courting It hath brought palsey to bed, lyeth between the young bride and her bridegroom CONTRA NATURAM They have brought whores for Eleusis Corpses are set to banquet at behest of usura.” Rest In Peace, dear Ezra.

[@hudsonbailey674]

Genius and haunting! Bravo!

[@deddth]

Il migglior fabbro.

[@Nichilistaiconoclasta]

"Miglior"

[@zabanhi4400]

AMAZING.............

[@agonydefeat8275]

The high time of the human race

[@TheUltimateGC]

Amazing.

[@binky777]

A poets poet.

[@phanes8440]

Immortal Poet.

[@37Dionysos]

Majestic---just about his best. "Pull down thy vanity...."

[@miralupa8841]

Amazing... I wonder is there a version of this anywhere without the audio cuts?

[@moonk_floor]

Great, great man!

[@iniohos2]

hey, looks like my grandpa!

[@lourelou]

piękne i prawdziwe! i wcale nie brzmi jak Irlandczyk! !

[@tykebuchanan3773]

"Brilliant man"

[@JoseChavez-lb9ff]

He saw the artist work.

[@alexternowetsky4675]

when was this recorded?

[@yieldsfalsehood8863]

pure asmr

[@donfarlan214]

his canto claws was good

[@artigosdebanheirodonadapes5245]

sem fim

[@codexanatolicus2432]

Beautiful. Does anyone know who Paquin is by any chance?

[@badhairdye]

a French fashion designer of the day

[@mrminer071166]

Read Hugh Kenner's The Pound Era.

[@ConcreteJungleSickness]

“Ant’s a centaur in his dragon world Pull down thy vanity”

[@ConcreteJungleSickness]

“Usura slayeth the child in the womb It stayeth the young man’s courting It hath brought palsey to bed, lyeth between the young bride and her bridegroom CONTRA NATURAM They have brought whores for Eleusis Corpses are set to banquet at behest of usura.” Rest In Peace, dear Ezra. Your contributions won’t be forgotten.

[@yungfaas6688]

12th century Provence poetry am I right?

[@TJ_USA]

What's with the Scottish accent?

[@thebeautifulones5436]

A poet. A man. Resisted the usury kind.

[@seanettles657]

And definitely paid for his brevity and thought. An amazing man.

[@zabanhi4400]

This is not vanity

[@KingMinosxxvi]

So I intend to use this in a memorial to my grandfather who was in Italy and fought there. He moved to canada afterwords and became a gardner. I cannot think of a more fitting tribute. I had not even thought of the word in question since I know what it means. But now I dont know if I have to censor it. I cannot imagine changing a poem of such richness because it has a homonym of a word that is obviously much more unfortunate. Any thoughts?

[@xtenkfarpl]

It's always interesting to hear a poet's own voice. A bit surprising, though, that Pound, who was an advocate of verse as song as much as speech, seems to speak in a rather affectless monotone? Or... now that I look at the attribution: is this really Pound himself? There is much falsity on the web.

[@phillipbrandel7932]

It's definitely him. Listen to some of his other recordings clearly the same voice

[@badhairdye]

It is Pound. He used a rhetorical delivery, emphasising the length of vowels.

[@shanephelps3898]

He was Very old when he made this recording

[@gks_889]

he sounds so Irish ?? crazy.

[@vicalieg]

Sounds more Scottish to me

[@greylajoie23]

Why does he sound Irish?

[@t.s.a.d6478]

might be Yeat's influence on him.

[@DuskAndHerEmbrace13]

More old -fashioned American, with a bit of English influence.

[@augustosarmentodeoliveira3023]

greylajoie23 whatever it is, it's an awesome way to declaim a poem

[@VentraleStar]

SelfReferencingName No it is not...we have videos older than this and his accent has nothing to do with Americans. He is clearly affecting it.

[@OnceTheyNamedMeiWasnt]

Paraquito do you mean Scottish? Or the accent of the mad man?

[@TheIanErc]

Pound came from Idaho. So what the hell is THAT accent?

[@badhairdye]

It is an East Coast 'Brahmin' accent since EP descended from Philadelphia and Manhattan stock. Homer Pound was assigned to assay the new silver coinage being produced in Western mines and EP was born in Hailey. But when still an infant he was taken back to Chester PA and NYC where he grew up/was educated.

[@ivanc9149]

Sounds Irish

[@dj8350]

It sounds like the studio accent that was taught to actors and actresses in Hollywood when they wanted to market their films to a British audience in addition to the American audience. It was called Mid-Atlantic English

[@Pantano63]

@@badhairdye Correct.

[@badhairdye]

@@Pantano63 thank you.

[@KingMinosxxvi]

I dont like this reading much actually. It's a magnificent excerpt and also accessible. But if you read this outside yourself Im certain you will find more rhythm, music and substance in it.

[@ALLCAPS]

Charles Bukowski brought me here.

[@v.mvarga4979]

ALL CAPS Well, we met again

[@asderc1]

How?

[@davol2449]

ew.

[@angelalopez4261]

Which book?

[@golkeeper8517]

e poi non era matto

[@Nichilistaiconoclasta]

...un po'

[@TomorrowWeLive]

My relationship with Pound is the reverse of most people's: I wholeheartedly sympathise with his politics, but--with very few exceptions--can't stand his poetry.

[@alongalostaway]

Dangerous Thinker Alert

[@rappakalja5295]

Fascists don't tend to make great artists.. Not surprising.

[@Abhishek-fe3zs]

@@rappakalja5295 literally every single great pre war writer was some kind of a fascist sympathizer or monarchist

[@rappakalja5295]

@@Abhishek-fe3zs Conrad? Nope. Joyce? Nope. James? Nope. Hardy? Nope. Shaw? Nope. Lawrence? Nope. Hesse? Mann? Nope. Wells? Nope. Döblin? Nope. Gide? Nope. Woolf? Nope. All the above are great pre-WW1 writers from the top of my head yet none of them were symphatetic towards fascism or monarchism.

[@Abhishek-fe3zs]

@@rappakalja5295 Lawrence? Actually Yes. Eliot? Yes. Celine? Yes. Wyndham Lewis? Yes. Fitzgerald? Yes. Yeats? A philo fascist certainly. Wells? Not a great writer but a harmless racist and anti semite. Also your opinion that Pound was not a great writer is not a popular opinion. Many academics consider him one of the best poets of the 20th century. Edit - wasn't Junger also kind of a fascist? I know he was not a nazi but eh...