Donald Davie (1922–1995)

This is a short, yet substantial introduction to the work of Ezra Pound. We learn first about his scholarship and interest in historical poetry and literature across the various Romance Languages, and how this influenced his later output. Among this was his work on the medieval songs of the Provencal troubadours, which despite him being an American, gave his poetry both a deeply European musicality, as well as a more generally European cultural content. As is often the case, the exceptions show more to this prove the rule, notably his very Western obsession with the aesthetics of the Orient, and his famous Cantos, inspired by his work on translating Chinese poetry, including his Cathay.
As a central member of the Imagist movement, Pound also had a lasting legacy on the development of Modernism. We hear a bit here too about his involvement with other writers, including William Carlos Williams, TS Eliot, and Wyndham Lewis. Pound could be incredibly inventive and versatile, creating intricate and disciplined musical patterns in his verse when he wanted to, while at other times becoming influential in his development of vers libre, free verse.
Pound is a bit out of fashion at the moment due to his antisemitism and involvement with fascism (which are also touched on here), however his works remain really quite something if we are willing to look beyond the ugly aspects of his history. Davie’s work gives us a glimpse here of what lies beneath the surface with Pound, and will be of interest to anyone who is looking to better understand him. show less

Davie wrote two books called 'Ezra Pound,' this is the earlier and more detailed of the two, and is one of those books you must read if you want to be a Pound scholar type. If you don't, but just want to read Pound, you'll get a lot out of it too. Davie writes clearly, says what he means without hedging, and only rarely makes idiotic critical howlers (e.g., "When 'ideas' do come into poetry, the poetry immediately goes to pieces around them," p 229. Uh... yeah. Love all those poems without show more ideas in them like... um...) Also notable is Davie's glorious author photo. He looks very pensive in his check coat and elongated tobacco pipe. show less

This should really be two books: 1) Thomas Hardy's Poetry and 2) Random Observations on Various British Authors, Some of Whom are Poets. The first was far too short and only somewhat interesting, the second not worth reading. It's unethical to pretend a book is about one thing only to drag in all one's obscurities once the reader has gotten forty pages in. It's almost as if the author had a handful of essays lying around and thought the best way to sell them would be to hoodwink someone at show more OUP into thinking they were a book on Hardy's poetry. Bizarre. show less

An anthology of Christian poetry in the English language from the earliest times to the late 20th century.