Pound's Cantos

by Peter Makin

Exploring a variety of Pound's sources and models, particularly Dante and Ovid, Peter Makin offers a remarkably complete guide to the literary and intellectual background of The Cantos. He offers an extended, systematic critical discussion of the work itself and a historical survey of its critical reception, including an account of the principal lines of approach and areas of controversy.

352 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1985

Reviews

[Rodney]

This obscure little book is an outstanding introduction to Ezra Pound. Makin explains some of the underlying structures that order the Cantos--periplous, ideogram, fugue, the "repeat in history"--and gives concise, chatty readings of individual sections that helped my understanding enormously. He does an especially good job of connecting Pound's theory of money to his views on sex and creativity. Makin manages to be critical of Pound while treating his ideas with verve and sympathy; the writing is colloquial, witty and jargon-free. I appreciated the Cantos much more after reading this short, effective study.

[Matt Morris]

You may read my review of this & other books at https://miscmss.blogspot.com/2020/03/...

[Tom Walsh]

The Cantos, I don't care how much reading one has done, cannot be interpreted as an original source. It takes experts, such as Makin, to help with annotation, explanation, and, of course, a good citation and biblio section, to guide us through these trecherous, beautiful waters. Tom