Abstract
The stones of Venice carved a very deep trace in the mind of Ezra Pound. They figure in his poetry from beginning to end. Arriving in the city in 1908 at the age of twenty-two – fresh from Crawfordsville, Indiana – he penned these lachrymose lines:
These sentiments are borne along by watery currents of aestheticism:
After four months of unemployed idling in Dorsoduro, two overlooking the gondola workshop in Rio di San Trovaso, courtesy of Sara Norton's prepaid lodgings, Pound took his leave from Venice bearing his first volume of poems, A Lume Spento (‘with tapers quenched’ a phrase drawn from Dante), 150 copies published at his own expense:
In his recent critical biography, David Moody describes the poems contained in Pound's ‘San Trovaso Notebook’ as saturated by a ‘high-toned mood of “art and ecstasy”’.
These sentiments are borne along by watery currents of aestheticism:
After four months of unemployed idling in Dorsoduro, two overlooking the gondola workshop in Rio di San Trovaso, courtesy of Sara Norton's prepaid lodgings, Pound took his leave from Venice bearing his first volume of poems, A Lume Spento (‘with tapers quenched’ a phrase drawn from Dante), 150 copies published at his own expense:
In his recent critical biography, David Moody describes the poems contained in Pound's ‘San Trovaso Notebook’ as saturated by a ‘high-toned mood of “art and ecstasy”’.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Title of host publication | Venice and the Cultural Imagination: "This Strange Dream upon the Water" |
| Editors | Michael O'NEILL, Mark SANDY, Sarah WOOTTON |
| Place of Publication | London |
| Publisher | Routledge |
| Pages | 141-156 |
| Number of pages | 16 |
| ISBN (Electronic) | 9781315655611 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 2012 |
| Externally published | Yes |