photo by me.

Pound- Like Whitman, Pound's poems (well especially so in our anthology) are insanely epic (even when they are his shorter poems) and seem to jump from one idea to the other. Except with Pound he puts into his work a lot more abscure characters. Where (except for Lilacs)Whitman's many characters are for the most part normal everyday people, (like the man in the carrige or the boys in the river) Pounds are references to historic, and Greek or Roman mythological characters. (Like Homer, Circe, and Hermes) Pound challenges the reader almost to what seems like a battle of wits, where he tells the reader (in a sense) go look it up. I think Pound's poems would be a lot more challenging without given the anthology notes at the bottom of the page (especially if one was not familar with mythology...even I had trouble understanding Pound and I love mythology...though it also has been a while since I last studied Greek Mythology (Holy crap, it's been since Middle School!) But, I digress.

H. D.- I noticed H. D. also uses mythology in some of her poems which is interesting being she was friends with Pound. Unlike Pound H. D. seems to cut to the "mythological" chase. Her poems are relativity short and they still have the epic-ness of a "myth" based poems. Helen being a clear example, especially the first stanza:

All Greece hates
the still eyes in the white face,
the luster as of olives
where she stands,
and the white hands.

for me it has the epic language, the mythical-ness-ness, and its easy to read.

I really like her Sea Violet Poem. Something about it. The beauty in the ugliness...the strength of delicacy...the uniqueness of the violet by the sea, standing out from all the blue violets on the hillside. This poem stood out for me the most.

Williams- Definitely has a...style. The poems I read were not clear, but not "abstract" They seem to be tied into a theme even if the theme is slightly odd. Especially Sympathetic Portrait of a Child. I read it, and re-read it and I am still confused...Is the narrator going to kill her because she is a murderer's daughter? Or is that how the murderer picks the victims he lets the daughter pick them?

Next Post... Moore and T. S.