A Companion to The Cantos of Ezra Pound

by Carroll F. Terrell

The Companion is a major contribution to the literary evaluation of Pound's great, but often bewildering and abstruse work, The Cantos. Available in a one-volume paperback edition for the first time, the Companion brings together in conveniently numbered glosses for each canto the most pertinent details from the vast body of work on the Cantos during the last thirty years. The Companion contains 10,421 separate glosses that include translations from eight languages, identification of all proper names and works, Pound's literary and historical allusions, and other exotica, with exegeses based upon Pound's sources. Also included is a supplementary bibliography of works on Pound, newly updated, and an alphabetized index to The Cantos.

Genres: Poetry, Criticism, Reference, Literary Criticism, Nonfiction, American

791 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1984

About the author

Carroll Franklin Terrell, Ph.D. (New York University, 1956; M.A., University of Maine, 1950; B.A., Bowdoin College, 1945), was Professor of English at the University of Maine in Orono, and a renowned scholar of Ezra Pound. He founded and was the managing editor of a poetry and literary publication entitled Paideuma: A Journal Devoted to Ezra Pound Scholarship.

Reviews

[Jonathan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Incredibly helpful. Probably something essential to keep beside you when working through the Cantos

[Jacob Hurley · Rating 3 out of 5]

More of a resource than a commentary, primarily it provides translations and explanations of unclear allusions. Perfect for this purpose, but doesn't provide interpretations (not that they're needed or wanted)

[Matt Morris]

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

[Aileen Tierney · Rating 2 out of 5]

Provides contexts of mythical/historical figures mentioned (which is just 99% of the poem) but not much more

[Ezra · Rating 5 out of 5]

it is possible too read pound's cantos without any context at all. doing so illuminates particular facets of the poems that do not engage pound's didacticism, and lets you concentrate on their awesome formal and musical energy. however, it's also a good idea to try and the experience the cantos in their intended function: a kind of referential textbook on all of human history and culture. one of pound's ideas was that reading the cantos would require one to read all kinds of other things... his idea of a comprehensive general education. perhaps he wouldn't approve of a specialized reference to the background of the poems, but of couse a generation of readers has found such a reference to be entirely necessary. this 'companion' sort of replaces the venerable 'index to the cantos of ezra pound,' and i must say it's actually a great improvement. it is a sort of encylopedia of everything pound refers to in the poems, organized by canto (rather than alphabetically, as in the 'index.') the entries are meaty little paragraphs, almost always with some kind of primary-source reference; so it's really useful as a pointer towards more thorough areas of research, if yr gonna go all the way...

since pound refers to many, many things in many languages, it's an impressively thorough and dedicated piece of research, but the real point is that it does it's job, making the poem a gateway to some serious study of history, mythology, economics and medieval literature...

[Tom Walsh]

If you want to understand The Cantos of Pound, this is the only book you'll need. Carroll F. Terrell's analysis is detailed; there is heavy annotation throughout. If you have an interest in The Cantos, but can't get passed the first line, this book is your life saver. Tom

[Roger]

indispensable guide to the cantos

[Nathaniel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Opens massive caves of meaning, beauty, and history

[Sam Ruddick · Rating 5 out of 5]

this thing is indispensible: i don't understand a word of the cantos without it. not that i've finished the cantos or this, but i sort of live with them, reading then in tandem from time to time.

[Mark Folse · Rating 4 out of 5]

An essential companion for a serious reading of the Cantos. I wish for a summary of each canto but to do that would make the book almost unmanageably large and that is available from other authors.