Canto 47 has long been considered one of Ezra Pound’s major presentations of an ideal fertile world where nature and culture coalesce in a series of rituals born directly out of the patterns of “birth, copulation, and death” (T. S. Eliot). This reading of canto 47 shows how Pound’s description of timeless folk rituals, many of them drawn from his favourite Mediterranean landscape in Liguria, responds to a contemporary political agenda: the encouragement of human fertility in Fascist Italy (with bonuses to families with numerous offspring and penalties for the childless), and the concurrent program to dramatically increase the domestic production of wheat. Pound translates this in some of his most resonant verses, evoking archaic rhythms and voices. By recreating the subjective male feeling during the sexual act, canto 47 seeks to portray a constant in human experience, within and beyond history.
Repeating the Past: Ezra Pound’s Canto 47
BACIGALUPO, MASSIMO
2014-01-01
Abstract
Canto 47 has long been considered one of Ezra Pound’s major presentations of an ideal fertile world where nature and culture coalesce in a series of rituals born directly out of the patterns of “birth, copulation, and death” (T. S. Eliot). This reading of canto 47 shows how Pound’s description of timeless folk rituals, many of them drawn from his favourite Mediterranean landscape in Liguria, responds to a contemporary political agenda: the encouragement of human fertility in Fascist Italy (with bonuses to families with numerous offspring and penalties for the childless), and the concurrent program to dramatically increase the domestic production of wheat. Pound translates this in some of his most resonant verses, evoking archaic rhythms and voices. By recreating the subjective male feeling during the sexual act, canto 47 seeks to portray a constant in human experience, within and beyond history.
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