This book is a detailed study of Ezra Pound's explicit and implicit use of elements of the Neoplatonic tradition in his prose and poetry, and of the way it informed his poetics as well as his political and social-economic views. The book not only discusses the ideas of those Pound considered to be leading figures in the development of Neoplatonism (such as Plotinus, Dionysus the Areopagite, Eriugena, Dante, Gernisthus Plethon, and Thomas Taylor), but, more importantly, it shows how and why Pound adapted and appropriated their notions to develop his interpretation of what he saw as an ongoing Neoplatonic tradition. Through this adaptation of Neoplatonism, Pound's work may be seen as an insightful commentary upon this religio-philosophical tradition as well as a contribution to it.

Turning the tables on the misconception that Ezra Pound knew little Greek, this volume looks at his work translating Greek tragedy and considers how influential this was for his later writing. Pound's work as a translator has had an enormous impact on the theory and practice of translation, and continues to be a source of heated debate. While scholars have assessed his translations from Chinese, Latin, and even Provençal, his work on Greek tragedy remains understudied. Pound's versions of Greek tragedy (of Aeschylus' Agamemnon, and of Sophocles' Elektra and Women of Trachis) have received scant attention, as it has been commonly assumed that Pound knew little of the language. Liebregts shows that the poet's knowledge of Greek was much more comprehensive than is generally assumed, and that his renderings were based on a careful reading of the source texts. He identifies the works Pound used as the basis for his translations, and contextualises his versions with regard to his biography and output, particularly The Cantos. A wealth of understudied source material is analysed, such as Pound's personal annotations in his Loeb edition of Sophocles, his unpublished correspondence with classical scholars such as F. R. Earp and Rudd Fleming, as well as manuscript versions and other as-yet-unpublished drafts and texts which illuminate his working methodology.

Known for his maxim "Make it new," Ezra Pound played a principal role in shaping the modernist movement as a poet, translator, and literary critic. His works, with their complex structures and layered allusions, remain widely taught. Yet his known fascism, anti-Semitism, and misogyny raise issues about dangerous ideologies that influenced his work and that must be addressed in the classroom. The first section, "Materials," catalogs the print and digital editions of Pound's works, evaluates numerous secondary sources, and provides a history of Pound's critical contexts. The essays in the second section, "Approaches," offer strategies for guiding students toward a clearer understanding of Pound's difficult works and the context in which they were written.

Emphasizing the interplay of aesthetic forms and religious modes, Sean Pryor's ambitious study takes up the endlessly reiterated longing for paradise that features throughout the works of W. B. Yeats and Ezra Pound. Yeats and Pound define poetry in terms of paradise and paradise in terms of poetry, Pryor suggests, and these complex interconnections fundamentally shape the development of their art. Even as he maps the shared influences and intellectual interests of Yeats and Pound, and highlights those moments when their poetic theories converge, Pryor's discussion of their poems' profound formal and conceptual differences uncovers the distinctive ways each writer imagines the divine, the good, the beautiful, or the satisfaction of desire. Throughout his study, Pryor argues that Yeats and Pound reconceive the quest for paradise as a quest for a new kind of poetry, a journey that Pryor traces by analysing unpublished manuscript drafts and newly published drafts that have received little attention. For Yeats and Pound, the journey towards a paradisal poetic becomes a never-ending quest, at once self-defeating and self-fulfilling - a formulation that has implications not only for the work of these two poets but for the study of modernist literature.

GLOSSATOR 10 (2018) Astern in the Dinghy: Commentaries on Ezra’s Pound’s Thrones de los Cantares 96-109 Edited by Alexander Howard You in the dinghy (piccioletta) astern there! (CIX/788) Mr. Pound Goes to Washington Alexander Howard (University of Sydney) Some Contexts for Canto XCVI Richard Parker (University of Surrey) Gold and/or Humaneness: Pound’s Vision of Civilization in Canto XCVII Roxana Preda (University of Edinburgh) Hilarious Commentary: Ezra Pound’s Canto XCVIII Peter Nicholls (New York University) “Tinkle, tinkle, two tongues”: Sound, Sign, Canto XCIX Michael Kindellan (University of Sheffield) “In the intellect possible”: Revisionism and Aesopian Language in Canto C Alex Pestell (Independent Scholar) Deep Rustication in Canto CI Mark Byron (University of Sydney) Shipwrecks and Mountaintops: Notes on Canto CII Mark Steven (University of Exeter) Revised Intentions: James Buchanan and the Antebellum White House in Canto CIII James Dowthwaite (University of Göttingen) Exploring Permanent Values: Canto CIV Archie Henderson (Independent Scholar) Canto CV: A Divagation? Alec Marsh (Muhlenberg College) So Slow: Canto CVI Sean Pryor (University of New South Wales) ‘The clearest mind ever in England’: Pound’s Late Paradisal in Canto CVII Miranda Hickman (McGill University) Three Ways of Looking at a Canto: Navigating Canto CVIII Kristin Grogan (Exeter College, University of Oxford) ‘To the king onely to put value’: Monarchy and Commons in Pound’s Canto CIX Alex Niven (University of Newcastle)

Emphasizing the interplay of aesthetic forms and religious modes, Sean Pryor's ambitious study takes up the endlessly reiterated longing for paradise that features throughout the works of W. B. Yeats and Ezra Pound. Yeats and Pound define poetry in terms of paradise and paradise in terms of poetry, Pryor suggests, and these complex interconnections fundamentally shape the development of their art. Even as he maps the shared influences and intellectual interests of Yeats and Pound, and highlights those moments when their poetic theories converge, Pryor's discussion of their poems' profound formal and conceptual differences uncovers the distinctive ways each writer imagines the divine, the good, the beautiful, or the satisfaction of desire. Throughout his study, Pryor argues that Yeats and Pound reconceive the quest for paradise as a quest for a new kind of poetry, a journey that Pryor traces by analysing unpublished manuscript drafts and newly published drafts that have received little attention. For Yeats and Pound, the journey towards a paradisal poetic becomes a never-ending quest, at once self-defeating and self-fulfilling - a formulation that has implications not only for the work of these two poets but for the study of modernist literature.

Forty-five years after his death, and more than seventy years after his indictment for treason, Ezra Pound remains a deeply controversial figure. Today it is hard to imagine a poet sparking national debate, but Pound did just that. His receipt in 1949 of the first-ever Bollingen Award for Poetry started a hue and cry that spread to every US periodical that made even a pretense of following "cultural" issues: even Time weighed in. It took two years for things to simmer down, and when they finally did, literary study looked profoundly different. Everyone engaged in the study of poetry today, professors and students alike, works in an environment shaped by that national crisis of conscience. The present book considers this untold story, and investigates not just what critics have had to say about Pound but also why they have asked the questions they have asked. It is routine for reception histories to distinguish between professional studies and more popular responses; this book encourages us to consider why we make that distinction and what the costs of doing so might be. Unprofessional responses to Pound have often been ideologically and politically embarrassing for Pound scholars, who have in response policed the distinction between professional and popular readings with extraordinary vigilance. As a result, the history of Pound's reception unfolds as a kind of drama - perhaps the last ongoing theater for McCarthyite cultural-political anxieties. Michael Coyle is Professor of English at Colgate University and has published widely on Pound. Roxana Preda is Leverhulme Fellow in American Literature at the University of Edinburgh and President of the Ezra Pound Society.