Date of birth: 1885- 1972
Celebrity title: poet and critic.
Celebrity country: the United States
Ezra pound is undoubtedly the most influential figure in modern poetry and criticism in Britain and America. He had a great influence on the generation of young people who started the modern literary movement after the First World War, and was almost a legendary figure.
Pound was born in Idaho and studied at the University of Pennsylvania in his early years. He and Williams are soul mates. When he graduated, he not only mastered English grammar and literature, but also mastered nine foreign languages. At the age of 22, he became a professor at a university in Indiana. Because of his bohemian life, he was soon fired and began to run away from home. 1908 came to London and met the famous Irish poet W. B. Ye Zhi. 19 12 together with several young poets, he launched the imagist movement and became an active advocate of the British and American new poetry movement. As a poet and poetry theorist, he not only promoted the new invention of image communication skills, but also explored and constantly enriched and innovated Anglo-Saxon, Provence, China, Japanese and Latin poems. Most of his masterpieces are actually the compilation or re-creation of these ancient traditional poems. In addition to writing, he also serves as the editor of foreign editions of magazines such as Poetry and Small Forum. He selflessly helped young writers who didn't show their edge in various ways, and compiled and published their early works, such as Joyce, Eliot, Frost, Williams, Cummings, Hemingway and Ryan Moore. After World War I, the post-war crisis in Britain and the destruction of western civilization deeply influenced Pound. /kloc-moved to Paris in 0/920 and settled in Italy in 0/924. He continued to write poetry, study music, and wrote a lot of translations and literary reviews. During the economic crisis in 1930s, he was keen on the study of history and economy and became a supporter of Mussolini. During World War II, he made anti-American propaganda for Italian fascists. After the war, he was arrested by the US military 1945 and sent back to the United States. He was tried for treason. 1946, his examination was terminated because he was found to be mentally ill, and he was sent to a mental hospital in Washington for treatment until 1958. In this 12, Pound translated a large number of ancient Greek and China literary works. From 65438 to 0949, Pound, who was in custody and awaiting trial, won the first Paulingen Poetry Award for his collection of poems in Pisa, which caused great repercussions in political and literary circles. After his release, he returned to his second hometown, Italy, and continued to write the second half of the poem and other translations for the rest of the year.
The core of Pound's poetry theory and practice can be simply summarized as condensation and compression. His imagist principles and his exposition of China's imagist characters are the best examples. He said? Quot Poetry is condensed ". 19 12 He, richard aldington and others have formulated three basic principles of imagism: First, direct treatment: the theme of poetry must be expressed in a similar or direct way as much as possible, and the images that readers can see at a glance can be expressed in simple words. Every word must be very accurate; Second, concise expression: never use words that have nothing to do with image expression. The language must be concise, not generalized or explained. Third, rhythm: colorful musical phrases replace formal rhythm. The first two articles put forward condensation, while the latter advocated free poetry; These three articles oppose the abuse of listing the filling rules in a fixed pattern just for the sake of form. Pound's masterpiece On the Subway Station, condensed from the first 30 lines to the present two lines, is typical in this respect. Pound has been keen on China's history, philosophy and classical poetry for a long time, and began to study the translation of China's poems very early. The Book of Songs is full of China's local customs, often quoting China's allusions, sometimes expressed in Chinese characters. His interest in Chinese characters is to simplify his hobby of related objects. He believes that Chinese characters contribute to conciseness, especially because each symbol is a style pattern of its meaning, so he advocates that poetry should be rooted in images. He recommended this kind of poem to Ye Zhi, Eliot, William and others, who were all inspired by this kind of poem to varying degrees. Eliot gave Pound his manuscript of The Waste Land, which, according to Eliot himself, was reduced by half. Williams always remembers Pound's advice in Patterson: "Want something, don't think". Pound's views on concrete forms of compression, images and thoughts are obvious in his poems. Eliot's theory of "objective association" often constitutes "learned poetry", sometimes it is an implicit metaphor or allusion. In the later period of Poetry, he used poetry shorthand, quoted poems, platitudes and historical fragments more and more to express complex thoughts and feelings.
Pound wrote more than 70 works and edited more than 70 poems for others in his life. In addition, he wrote 1500 articles on creative theory and poetry criticism.
On the Subway Station is his masterpiece of imagery poetry. In just two lines of poetry, the poet organically combines vivid visual images with extended meanings. The faces in the subway station imply the personification of urban life, while the haste and disorder imply the wonderful moments of human life itself.
Hugh Cervin Mobley is a long poem composed of 18 short poems. The significance of these poems is an ironic self-defense of Pound's own belief in poetry and an attack on the social ridicule of refusing serious artists. Like Pound, moberly admired ancient and medieval classical literature, such as wrobel, who lived in a relaxed and utilitarian society and forced him to sacrifice himself for a symbol. At the same time, the consumption of parallel World War I destroyed many promising young people.
Poems is Pound's main representative work. The poem is rich in content and wide in knowledge, and people have been arguing endlessly so far. This paper describes the rise and fall of the Eastern and Western empires, the destruction caused by greed and materialism. There are many pictures of China in the poem, and China's allusions are often quoted. The language of poetry is also very complicated, mixed with all kinds of words, which is what Pound said? Quot "Image" adopts China's image characters in many chapters. Due to the departure from the traditional structure and complex language, the chapters of poetry are more puzzling than other modern poems, which often confuses people. After reading the complete poem, Ye Zhi was puzzled, which made him dislike it for many years. Pound's original intention is similar to Eliot's The Waste Land. I want to condemn this society by comparing some pictures of modern society with past scenes. For example, the unique words and deeds of Confucius and Jeffrey are the images of the past non-profit exploitation culture, and the Odyssey is the image of exploring social stability. However, most readers can only understand individual chapters and some poems as excellent examples of poets' rhythm, images and words.
Poems of Pisa is the best chapter written by Pound in his life. He described his physical and mental torture in the military detention camp with unforgettable pictures and measurements. In some short stories written before his death in his later years, Pound expressed his remorse for some actions in his life.