Yuletide Quinzaines

A Quinzaine for this Yule by Ezra Pound

I have been perusing this short volume of poetry of late.  Despite its title, there isn't any Christmas poetry in it.  Nor is there a Quinzaine in it. 

It's relatively early Pound (1908), back in his pre-Canto days when he was at least making a nod in the direction of comprehensibility in his poetry.  Quite a few poems about Venice, which are nice, but I suspect they are even nicer if you have been to Venice. 

My favorite Poem:

Histrion

No man hath dared to write this thing as yet,
And yet I know, how that the souls of all men great
At times pass through us,
And we are melted into them, and are not
Save reflexions of their souls.
Thus am I Dante for a space and am
One Francois Villon, ballad-lord and thief
Or am such holy ones I may not write,
Lest blasphemy be writ against my name;
This for an instant and the flame is gone.

'Tis as in midmost us there glows a sphere
Translucent, molten gold, that is the "I"
And into this some form projects itself:
Christus, or John, or eke the Florentine;
And as the clear space is not if a form's
Imposed thereon,
So cease we from all being for the time,
And these, the Masters of the Soul, live on. 


That's a nice image--and it's nice to think that the immortals do live on in brief moments in the lives of those around.  It is also presents an interesting thought--do we have an obligation to enable those Masters of the Soul to live?  If nobody ever gave a space for Dante, we would obviously be the poorer for it.  But what about Villon?  I've never read Villon.  Should I feel some obligation to do so? 

And what about Ezra Pound himself?  Now he is a hard case.  He wrote some really interesting poetry, but he was, to put it bluntly, a traitor.  He was a paid propagandist for the Italian Fascists during World War 2 and he wrote some great poetry.  Do we laud him?  Now normally I wouldn't really wonder about such a thing, but Ezra Pound has an odd hold on me--he is from Hailey, Idaho, a town which my grandfather spent a good part of his career developing.  I have spent many a vacation in Hailey.  So, can I consider him a home-town hero or do his traitorous activities mean that he is the black sheep of the family?  Hailey, Idaho doesn't brag about him much--there is a little display about him in the back of the Hailey museum, but it isn't prominently displayed. (You can see it here.  On the drop-down menu, pick the "Military Heritage/Ezra Pound" option.  It is the display case in the blue alcove.)  Indeed, I have often wondered how many residents of Hailey even know that a world-class poet is from their town.


So, when I read Ezra Pound and he thereby occupies the translucent sphere within me, am I bringing light or darkness to the world?