Matouš Jaluška: Ezra Pound Descending

This paper investigates bottoms and vessels in Ezra Pound’s Cantos, spaces where matter descends. The paper attempts to demonstrate that a useful way of grasping the shattered Hades of this poem can be found within these spaces. Vertical dynamics and gravitational curves can also be productively compared with similar phenomena in Pound’s literary models. Descending matter figures prominently in the very first “canto.” The image of light raining down in the Occitan cantos belongs to the same family as does the repeated quote of Porphyry: “et omniformis [omnis intellectus est].” Pound’s concept of descent contrasts with views of his antique and medieval antecedents. The American poet emphasizes the act of going down, settling and sedimentation – his Mussolini becomes a cultural hero thanks to his mastery of these processes.

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