ABC of Reading, Volume 0This important work, first published in 1934, is a concise statement of Pound's aesthetic theory. It is a primer for the reader who wants to maintain an active, critical mind and become increasingly sensitive to the beauty and inspiration of the world's best literature. With characteristic vigor and iconoclasm, Pound illustrates his precepts with exhibits meticulously chosen from the classics, and the concluding "Treatise on Meter" provides an illuminating essay for anyone aspiring to read and write poetry. ABC of Reading displays Pound's great ability to open new avenues in literature for our time. |
From inside the book
Results 1-5 of 25
Page 39
... gives us the first known example of a process . 2 The masters . Men who combined a number of such processes , and who used them as well as or better than the inventors . 3 The diluters . Men who came after the first two kinds of writer ...
... gives us the first known example of a process . 2 The masters . Men who combined a number of such processes , and who used them as well as or better than the inventors . 3 The diluters . Men who came after the first two kinds of writer ...
Page 40
... give a complete presentation of life , or of their epoch . 6 The starters of crazes . Until the reader knows the first two categories he will never be able to see the wood for the trees ' . He may know what he ' likes ' . He may be a ...
... give a complete presentation of life , or of their epoch . 6 The starters of crazes . Until the reader knows the first two categories he will never be able to see the wood for the trees ' . He may know what he ' likes ' . He may be a ...
Page 48
... give him a list of authors who are unsurpassed IN THEIR OWN DOMAIN , whereas the writers whom I omit are demonstrably INFERIOR to one or more of the writers I include , and their inferiority can be computed on some particular basis ...
... give him a list of authors who are unsurpassed IN THEIR OWN DOMAIN , whereas the writers whom I omit are demonstrably INFERIOR to one or more of the writers I include , and their inferiority can be computed on some particular basis ...
Page 59
... same thing doesn't give one's mind any leverage . There is Shakespearian song . There is the language made to be SPOKEN , perhaps even to be ranted . Felix Schelling has evolved or quoted the theory that Shakespeare. 59.
... same thing doesn't give one's mind any leverage . There is Shakespearian song . There is the language made to be SPOKEN , perhaps even to be ranted . Felix Schelling has evolved or quoted the theory that Shakespeare. 59.
Page 70
... give time for the action ; they must give time for the audience to take count of what is going on . Even on the printed page there is an analogous ease . Tacitus in writing Latin can use certain forms of con- densation that don't ...
... give time for the action ; they must give time for the audience to take count of what is going on . Even on the printed page there is an analogous ease . Tacitus in writing Latin can use certain forms of con- densation that don't ...
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
adorn the Shepherd's Aeschylus Arnaut Daniel better BISHOP OF DUNKELD Catullus centuries Chaucer Chinese contemporary Crabbe criticism Dante Dante's deal Donne Dunciad dying Verse England English EXHIBIT CHAUCER EXHIBIT GAVIN DOUGLAS EZRA POUND Flaubert French GAVIN DOUGLAS Greek guage Homer human ideogram ideogrammic method invent Italian Jane Austen Landor language Latin least Let the pupil literary literature look lyric matter meaning mediaeval melody melopoeia merely metre metric mind musician narrative never never-fading Garlands novel Odysseus Ovid painting perceptions phanopoeia poems poet poetry Pope probably prose Provence reader rhyme Rochester sense Shakespeare Shepherd's Herse simply singing song sonnet Sordello souls sound statement Stendhal strophe strophic form student syllabic verse syllables teacher tell thee thing thou tion translated trying tune Villon Virgil words writing written ye MUSES Yeats
Popular passages
Page 161 - For he was of that stubborn crew Of errant saints, whom all men grant To be the true church militant ; Such as do build their faith upon The holy text of pike and gun ; Decide all controversies by Infallible artillery ; And prove their doctrine orthodox By apostolic blows and knocks...
Page 166 - Tis hard to say, if greater want of skill Appear in writing or in judging ill ; But, of the two, less dangerous is the offence To tire our patience, than mislead our sense. Some few in that, but numbers err in this ; Ten censure wrong for one who writes amiss : A fool might once himself alone expose : Now one in verse makes many more in prose.
Page 163 - Still they are sure to be i' th' right. 'Tis a dark lantern of the Spirit, Which none see by but those that bear it ; A light that falls down from on high, For spiritual trades to cozen by ; An ignis fatuus, that bewitches, And leads men into pools and ditches, To make them dip themselves, and sound For Christendom in dirty pond ; To dive like wild-fowl for salvation, And fish to catch regeneration. This light inspires and plays upon The...
Page 161 - A sect, whose chief devotion lies In odd perverse antipathies; In falling out with that or this, And finding somewhat still amiss; More peevish, cross, and splenetic, Than dog distract, or monkey sick.
Page 160 - And, as he was disposed, could prove it Below the moon, or else above it; What Adam dreamt of when his bride Came from her closet in his side; Whether the devil tempted her By a High Dutch interpreter; If either of them had a navel; Who first made music malleable; Whether the serpent at the Fall Had cloven feet, or none at all.
Page 142 - TO VIOLETS WELCOME, maids of honour, You do bring In the Spring ; And wait upon her. She has virgins many, Fresh and fair ; Yet you are More sweet than any.
Page 145 - WERE I, who to my cost already am, One of those strange, prodigious Creatures Man...
Page 181 - Shakespeare is not our poet, but the world's, Therefore on him no speech! and brief for thee, Browning! Since Chaucer was alive and hale, No man hath walked along our roads with step So active, so inquiring eye, or tongue So varied in discourse. But warmer climes Give brighter plumage, stronger wing: the breeze Of Alpine heights thou playest with, borne on Beyond Sorrento and Amalfi, where The Siren waits thee, singing song for song.
Page 162 - To all you ladies now on land, We men at sea indite ; But first would have you understand How hard it is to write : The muses now, and Neptune too, We must implore to write to you.
Page 137 - THE ECSTASY Where, like a pillow on a bed, A pregnant bank swelled up, to rest The violet's reclining head, Sat we two, one another's best; Our hands were firmly cemented With a fast balm, which thence did spring. Our eye-beams twisted, and did thread Our eyes, upon one double string; So to...