Diptych Rome-London: "Homage to Sextus Propertius," "Hugh Selwyn Mauberley"

by Ezra Pound, A. Walton Litz (Introduction)

Diptych Rome-London  presents the two undisputed masterpieces of Pound's pre-Cantos work––the long poems "Homage to Sextus Propertius" and "Hugh Selwyn Mauberley." Created in the aftermath of World War I, the poems ironically consider the place of the artist in "a botched civilization." "Homage to Sextus Propertius" (1917) is a free translation from the Latin, an homage to the Roman poet; praising its "enormous freedom and range of tone," Hugh Kenner remarked that "few more original poems exist in English." "Hugh Selwyn Mauberly" (1920) is described in A. Walton Litz's clear and helpful introduction as a "master document of literary modernism." It was also T.S. Eliot's favorite Pound "I am quite certain of 'Mauberley,' whatever else I am certain of... a great poem, a document of an epoch."

Genres: Poetry

58 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 1958

About the author

Ezra Weston Loomis Pound was an American expatriate poet, critic and intellectual who was a major figure of the Modernist movement in early-to-mid 20th century poetry.

Pound's The Cantos contains music and bears a title that could be translated as The Songs—although it never is. Pound's ear was tuned to the motz et sons of troubadour poetry where, as musicologist John Stevens has noted, "melody and poem existed in a state of the closest symbiosis, obeying the same laws and striving in their different media for the same sound-ideal - armonia."

In his essays, Pound wrote of rhythm as "the hardest quality of a man's style to counterfeit." He challenged young poets to train their ear with translation work to learn how the choice of words and the movement of the words combined. But having translated texts from 10 different languages into English, Pound found that translation did not always serve the poetry: "The grand bogies for young men who want really to learn strophe writing are Catullus and François Villon. I personally have been reduced to setting them to music as I cannot translate them." While he habitually wrote out verse rhythms as musical lines, Pound did not set his own poetry to music.

Reviews

[Jimmy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found it interesting that there were 15 ratings and only two reviews, only one that said anything. It was a difficult book for most readers. The poems had some incredible bursts of memorable lines that deserve more five stars. Most of the rest is forgettable now.

Here were some of the great lines from Hugh Selwyn Mauberley:

V
These fought, in any case,
and some believing, pro domo, in any case ..

Some quick to arm,
some for adventure,
some from fear of weakness,
some from fear of censure,
some for love of slaughter, in imagination,
learning later ...

some in fear, learning love of slaughter;
Died some pro patria, non "dulce" non "et decor" ..

walked eye-deep in hell
believing in old men's lies, then unbelieving
came home, home to a lie,
home to many deceits,
home to old lies and new infamy;

usury age-old and age-thick
and liars in public places.

Daring as never before, wastage as never before.
Young blood and high blood,
Fair cheeks, and fine bodies;

fortitude as never before

frankness as never before,
disillusions as never told in the old days,
hysterias, trench confessions,
laughter out of dead bellies.

V
There died a myriad,
And of the best, among them,
For an old bitch gone in the teeth,
For a botched civilization.

Charm, smiling at the good mouth,
Quick eyes gone under earth's lid,

For two gross of broken statues,
For a few thousand battered books.

[Robyn · Rating 2 out of 5]

I only read "Homage to Sextus Propertius" so I can't comment on the other poem. "Homage" is a hybrid translation/interpretation of a few of Propertius' love poems. Here are the big differences that made Pound's take on this a bit disappointing:

Pound nearly removes Cynthia from the poems, and what little bit of her is there is nagging, weak, inactive. (Propertius' Cynthia is big, powerful, and terrifying in her loveliness.) When Pound mentions Cynthia (because he has to in the few closely translated poems) he lessens her power by not describing her actions, and by writing "and so on..." when she is screaming at him, instead of hanging on every angry word as Propertius does.

Pound is confident and reflective and always availing himself of hindsight (Oh those women! I know all about them...), where Propertius is by turns happy-go-lucky, fearing for his life, overcome with pleasure, pondering non-sequiturs like Spartan games or fashion when his thoughts wander, and always ALWAYS in the moment.

Pound tries to turn the love poems into his philosophy of everything. Propertius was keeping a raw diary about his love.

I guess there's no reason for these two sets of poems to be the same, but Pound's measured pontifications are not very satisfying compared to Propertius' youthful ejaculations (pun intended).

The one major intersection between the poets' aims: they both write love poetry with the cause of defending the writing of love poetry. They are both self-referential, defensive, and proud in this way.

[RK Byers · Rating 2 out of 5]

too much of this made no sense to me at all. but there were random bursts of alright stuff.