Canto VII Analysis

It can be really easy to read Canto VII and feel tempted to label the whole thing as free verse. But when studying a poet who knew the history and craft of poetry as well as Pound, we need to alway...

If Pound is trying to hide the fact that he's the speaker of Canto VII, he's not doing a very good job. Even the most skeptical reader in the world would have to say that if the speaker isn't Pound...

Yes, Shmoopers. You read it right. This poem takes place for the most part in a bunch of rooms in an old house. But the old house is actually a symbol of what's going on in Pound's mind as he lives...

When it comes to The Cantos, Pound can often seem like a bit of a two-trick pony. In Canto VII, for example, you'll either find him writing in a slow, sad tone or a thumping, angry one. And this al...

First of all, "canto" is the Italian word for "song." Second, the word comes from classical Italian poetry, where poets would divide long poems up according to cantos the way that novels have chapt...

To put it bluntly, Canto VII is a lot like T.S. Eliot's "The Waste Land," which it predates by about three years. There is no question that Pound had some of Eliot's work in mind when he was writin...

Like any of Pound's Cantos, Canto VII is full of allusions to classic literature and quotes from other languages that make it tough to understand. But what makes this poem especially difficult is t...

When Pound was young, he made a promise to himself to learn more about poetry than "any man living." Which makes sense once you've read a bit of his poetry. (Source.)Unfortunately for his fans, Pou...

When it comes to sex, this poem is as dry as the "dead speech" given off by the people Pound dislikes so much. In fact, you can basically tell that this poem is negative because there's not a trace...

Homer (2)Ovid (6-7)Bertrand de Born (10)Dante Alighieri (12, 23,92)Gustave Flaubert (13-15, 54)Liu Ch'e (41)Ezra Pound, "Ione, Dead the Long Year" (40)Propertius (52)Luis de Camoens, Lusiads (52)Ty...