Literary Essays of Ezra Pound

Pound's literary essays are an indispensable companion not only to his own poetry, but also to what is generally referred to as modernist poetry, especially that of T. S. Eliot and the later Yeats, in general. The first few essays announce a clear break with the poetry of the 19th century and urge a return to the authenticity (my term, not Pound's) of earlier, premodern styles of lyric poetry. Some of Pound's assertions may not make sense to a reader who is largely unfamiliar with the development of lyric poetry from the Renaissance to the 19th century, or with Pound's poetry itself--the essays are not written for the uninitiated. I highly recommend reading Pound's poems alongside his essays since the two always elucidate each other, the essays providing an explanation of the poems' rationales, and the poems offering examples of the essays' arguments. But Pound's explanations are typically lucid in themselves, and one could hardly find a clearer articulation of the modernist aesthetic agenda.

I find that reading just the first two essay was worth the money I spent on this book. Pound writes his literary essay with creativity, intelligence, and humor that are rare even among the best essayists. "A retrospect" is a great guide to use for those who takes interest in writing poetry. Likewise "How to Read" will serve as a great crash course for the history of poetry, and provides us with an instruction on how to approach poetry. His personal critique of other writers are also worth reading.